Ayman Soliman, a beloved former children’s hospital chaplain in the Cincinnati area, was released on today
Ayman Soliman, a beloved former children’s hospital chaplain in the Cincinnati area, has been jailed by Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement since July 9. Soliman was finally released today, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell Rolling Stone.
Just before 1:15 p.m., Adam Allen — one of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital chaplains who was fired after publicly backing Soliman — said in a brief phone call, “He’s at a mosque.”
The imam’s attorney, Robert Ratliff, confirms that Soliman was released and “headed home,” and that he expects U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to fully reinstate his client’s legal asylum status, which was officially terminated by the Trump administration the month before his arrest.
Ratliff says he is awaiting written confirmation from the government, but he views this as an unequivocal victory, clearing the way for his client to continue seeking his green card and getting his family members from Egypt to America.
The attorney adds that this morning, a staffer at Rep. Greg Landsman’s (D-Ohio) office called him to let him know that they had heard the termination of legal status would be rescinded imminently, and that Soliman would be let out of the Butler County jail within hours. Then, at 12:13 p.m., Ratliff says, he got confirmation from an attorney for the Trump Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that they had filed a motion to dismiss.
“It is 100 percent [good news], absolutely no downside to it,” Soliman’s lawyer says.
Soliman and his advocates have long claimed that if the U.S. government were to return him to Egypt, he would face political retribution, or even death. For years, Soliman has built a reputation in Ohio and northern Kentucky for his work as a chaplain at his former employer, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, where he was widely celebrated for his work that included comforting the parents of severely ill or dying kids.
None of that mattered to Trump and his administration, which jailed him for more than two months, and have been publicly trashing him (based on flimsy so-called evidence) as being connected to Islamist terrorists.
DHS did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
