A coalition of Ohio justice advocates and interfaith religious leaders are pleading with Gov. Mike DeWine to prevent the deportation of Imam Ayman Soliman, the former Cincinnati Children’s Hospital chaplain currently detained by U.S. immigration authorities.
Soliman’s supporters held a livestreamed press conference in Columbus Aug. 25 before delivering a letter to the governor warning the man known as “The Interfaith Imam” faces grave danger if he is returned to his native country.
“His return to Egypt would put his life at risk,” said activist Victoria Hickcox of Young United Souls for Revolutionary Action, a Muslim-led social justice organization.
Imam Ayman Soliman
Soliman was a journalist tortured multiple times by Egyptian authorities before fleeing to the U.S. and receiving indefinite asylum in 2018. He was arrested July 9 by U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement as part of the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign against immigrants.
“The same conditions that forced him to flee (Egypt) are still present today. The same regime that once imprisoned him still rules. Sending him back now would not be deportation, it would be a death sentence,” Hickcox said.
Christian and Muslim leaders appealed to DeWine to meet with Soliman one-on-one at the Butler County Detention Center near Cincinnati, and to appeal to Vice President JD Vance, a former U.S. Senator from Ohio, to push the Department of Homeland Security to drop the case.
Victoria Hickcox
“Our community, and our friend, desperately need your help,” clergy and activists said in their letter to the governor. “Chaplain Soliman is a respected spiritual leader whose presence has offered compassion, spiritual guidance and unity across diverse faith communities in Ohio.”
Soliman lost his work authorization when his asylum status was revoked in June, and with it his job as an admired health care chaplain, the written appeal explains. “As chaplain, Ayman Soliman provided spiritual care to children, families and staff and was widely respected as a source of comfort and spiritual guidance. His forced separation from this role has left a significant void.”
Soliman’s deportation also would be a loss to the state of Ohio because of the thousands of families he has helped during his service at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, the letter says.
“We respectfully call on you, governor, to intervene on our friend’s behalf — to use the authority of your office to secure his release and ensure the restoration of his asylum status. … Acting in this case is not simply a legal matter; it is fundamentally a moral one, and it aligns deeply with your own record of principled leadership and commitment to human dignity.”
The group delivered its message just ahead of Soliman’s scheduled Aug. 26 immigration court hearing in Cleveland to determine his eligibility for deportation and any legal recourse if he is scheduled for expulsion.
Tala Alli
“I want to make it clear today that the government’s case against Ayman Soliman is nonexistent. In this immigration court, DHS lawyers have perpetrated debacle after debacle,” said Tala Ali, chair of Clifton Mosque in Cincinnati and of the Cincinnati Islamic Association.
The department has made repeated “leaps of logic” in its case against the imam, including introducing — and subsequently removing — accusations of aiding a terrorist organization. The government then turned to claims Soliman is wanted on multiple murder and terrorism warrants in Iraq.
“Ayman has never been to Iraq,” Ali said. “This monumental screw up on behalf of DHS lawyers can be attributed to the fact that either they have the wrong Ayman Soliman, or they have exposed themselves in failing to delete a footnote in their filing as they copy and paste filings en masse to target Muslims.”
Soliman’s attorneys filed a federal lawsuit charging his arrest and detention without a bond hearing violate his constitutional rights to due process, freedom from cruel and unusual punishment and free exercise of religion.
Soliman has been held in solitary confinement resulting in a denial of visitation rights and meetings with counsel, according to the complaint.
“The termination was initiated without any new evidence of a change since USCIS’s initial 2018 grant of asylum and premised upon improper race, ethnicity and religion targeting. The termination was unsupported by either law or facts.”
Ali asked DeWine to show Soliman the same compassion he showed in defending the city of Springfield in 2024 when then-candidates Donald Trump and JD Vance falsely claimed immigrants were eating people’s pets.
“What is happening to chaplain Ayman is an injustice unfolding before our eyes and we stand here today to plead for the life of this man. Ayman’s detention represents not just a personal injustice, but a significant loss to the spiritual, communal and moral well-being of many Ohioans.”
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