Photograph by Chris Von Holle
One year ago, Ayman Soliman’s life changed forever. The Cincinnati Children’s Hospital chaplain went to the Blue Ash ICE office for a court proceeding related to the government revoking his 2018 asylum status. ICE officers arrested him there.
Soliman had no criminal record, but he was jailed for 73 days, sometimes spending 19 hours a day in solitary confinement. He faced deportation to his native Egypt, which might have led to his death. He didn’t see sunlight until ICE dropped the terrorism charges imposed on him and released him in September.
Soliman grew up in Cairo and moved to Chicago in 2014 on a visa. He received asylum in 2018, fearing a return to his native country after he was detained and tortured there for his work as a freelance journalist. He briefly worked at a prison in Oregon before moving to Cincinnati in 2021.
In June 2025, the government revoked his asylum—which had taken him three and a half years to receive—due to false allegations of associating with terrorist groups. In his hometown in Egypt, Soliman was a board member of one of thousands of branches of Al Jameya al Shareya, a nongovernmental organization that provides medical and charitable community services, which he disclosed to the Department of Homeland Security upon his arrival in America. The U.S. government alleged that the organization supported the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt has accused of being a terrorist organization. Soliman’s work permit was revoked, and he was fired from Children’s Hospital. On July 17, just more than a week after his arrest, a vigil for Soliman erupted into chaos when Covington Police beat protestors and arrested 15 people on the Roebling Bridge, including two CityBeat journalists.
“I can’t stop thinking about and reflecting on what happened to me,” Soliman says. “It was the most traumatizing experience of my life, and I can’t get it out of my head.”
Photograph by Chris Von Holle
Since regaining freedom, he’s done more than 50 speaking engagements, including in front of thousands at a Cincinnati No Kings rally in October. Due to media attention of his cause, he always grants interviews, even appearing in an award-winning short New York Times documentary on asylum seekers. “Every time I spoke, it really stirred emotions and memories,” he says. “But when I saw how it might impact people’s lives and hopefully save some lives, it helped me find meaning in my story.”
Soliman has noticed that opinions about the U.S. immigration system are beginning change. “A lot of people who thought they were deporting ‘the worst of the worst’ shifted, especially if they got to meet me and attend some of my events,” he says.
Despite becoming a national figure in the conversation about illegal ICE detainment, Soliman faces ongoing difficulties with the immigration system. He got his asylum status reinstated, but he’s still waiting on his green card seven years after applying. “I thought after they dropped the charges and dismissed the case, the first step would be to give me a green card,” he says. “The answer is, ‘We’re working on it.’ At some point I might go to federal court and file a discrimination lawsuit. Unfortunately, I started to feel traumatized by the word court because of my experience. The government isn’t really serious about fixing it. It is not that complicated.”
Although the trauma lingers, Soliman says he isn’t going anywhere. “I’m forever indebted to the people of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky,” he says. “These people saved my life when they advocated for me, when they believed me and did not believe the government allegations and smear campaign painting me as a terrorist. The majority of the people who stood up and spoke were people who never met me in person or didn’t know me, so I think this is a great city. Cincinnati is my home.”
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