"Don't underestimate your voice": Cincinnati imam jailed by ICE released, case dropped
Source: Salon
Published September 20, 2025 10:00AM (EDT)
Ayman Soliman walked the line of supporters gathered along a gray, brick wall in Cincinnati, Ohio‘s Clifton Mosque, stopping to shake each person’s hand. Just moments later, he stepped behind the podium in the center of the room to address his audience. “It is just as our Christian friends call it, a rebirth. I am reborn today. I was reborn at 12 p.m. today,” the imam and former interfaith chaplain said.
In his first time addressing the public directly since his release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention Friday afternoon, Soliman thanked his friends, his fellow clergy and the surrounding community for their efforts to advocate for his freedom. He wouldn’t be here without their efforts — and his faith — he said, and he is indebted to all of them. “I’m free today because of this advocacy and Islam,” Soliman said. “My faith, our Prophet Muhammad said, ‘You can’t be thankful to God until you are thankful to people first.'”
Soliman was released from the Butler County Jail in Ohio early Friday afternoon, after 72 days spent in ICE custody. He was detained on July 9 during a routine check-in with the agency following the termination of his asylum status a month prior. Robert Ratliff, a lawyer for Soliman, told Salon that the legal team received notice around 11 a.m. Eastern time Friday that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services planned to rescind the termination notice and reinstate Soliman’s asylum.
Nearly an hour later, he received notice from counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, which filed a motion to terminate Soliman’s removal proceedings around the same time. Ratliff said the government did not provide any reason for its decisions. “I think it was more a culmination of problems in this case, which goes to our point, which was this was always a stretch from the beginning, and it just reeked of somebody targeting him,” Ratliff said in an interview.
Read more: https://www.salon.com/2025/09/20/dont-underestimate-your-voice-cincinnati-imam-jailed-by-ice-released-case-dropped/