{"id":20076,"date":"2025-09-09T13:19:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T13:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=20076"},"modified":"2025-09-09T13:19:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T13:19:53","slug":"the-case-against-ayman-soliman-could-fuel-trump-immigration-crackdown-propublica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=20076","title":{"rendered":"The Case Against Ayman Soliman Could Fuel Trump Immigration Crackdown \u2014 ProPublica"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<p>ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they\u2019re published.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"highlights__heading\">Reporting Highlights<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"highlights__list\">\n<li class=\"highlights__highlight\"><span class=\"highlights__subheading\">Evidence: <\/span> The government seeks to deport an Ohio chaplain, but its case has come under scrutiny from supporters and legal advocates.<\/li>\n<li class=\"highlights__highlight\"><span class=\"highlights__subheading\">Support: <\/span> The U.S. paints the chaplain as a link in terrorist organizations, but in Ohio, families laud his work at a children\u2019s hospital and in the community.<\/li>\n<li class=\"highlights__highlight\"><span class=\"highlights__subheading\">Test Case: <\/span> If the government secures its quest for deportation, experts say the case could empower the Trump administration\u2019s mass deportation blueprint.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"highlights__disclaimer\">\n        These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story. <span id=\"survey-placeholder\"\/>\n    <\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"2.0\">In the weeks leading up to July 9, Ayman Soliman told friends he was terrified of losing the sanctuary he\u2019d found after fleeing Egypt in 2014 and building a new life as a Muslim chaplain at Cincinnati Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"3.0\">Soliman, 51, was to show up at 9 a.m. on that date for his first check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement since losing his asylum status. He\u2019d been granted the protections in 2018 under the first Trump administration. Then, in the last month of the Biden presidency, immigration authorities moved to revoke them based on sharply disputed claims of fraud and aid to a terrorist group. Once President Donald Trump returned to office weeks later, court records show, immigration officials bumped up the terrorism claims and formalized the asylum termination June 3.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"4.0\">By the time of Soliman\u2019s ICE appointment, friends said, he was distraught over the prospect of being returned to the regime that had jailed him for documenting protests as a journalist. He arrived at the agency\u2019s field office in Blue Ash, Ohio, accompanied by fellow clergy and a couple of Democratic state lawmakers.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"5.0\">\u201cI didn\u2019t come to America seeking a better life. I was escaping death,\u201d he said in a video filmed just before he entered.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"7.0\">Inside, Soliman\u2019s attorneys said, he was shocked to find FBI agents waiting for him. They interrogated him for three hours about his charity work more than a decade ago in Egypt, the basis for the Department of Homeland Security accusations of illegal aid, or \u201cmaterial support,\u201d to Islamist militants.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"8.0\">His lawyer eventually emerged from the ICE office holding a belt and a wallet. Soliman had been swept into custody, joining a record 61,000 people now in ICE detention. As he awaits an immigration court trial Sept. 25, he is being held in a county jail run by a sheriff who posted a sign outside reading, \u201cIllegal Aliens Here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"9.0\">Legal observers are watching the chaplain\u2019s case as a bellwether of the Trump administration\u2019s ability to merge the vast federal powers of immigration and counterterrorism. The case is also a reminder, they say, of sweeping post-9\/11 statutes that both Republican and Democratic administrations have been accused of abusing, especially in cases involving Muslims.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"11.0\">Material support laws ban almost any type of aid to U.S.-designated foreign terrorist groups, extending far beyond the basics of weapons, personnel and money. Prosecutors describe the laws as an invaluable tool against would-be attackers, but civil liberties groups have long complained of overreach.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"13.0\">Over the years, successive administrations have faced legal challenges over how they wield the power; a milestone Supreme Court decision during the Obama administration upheld the laws as constitutional. Now, however, there are particular fears about the material support \u201csledgehammer,\u201d as one legal scholar put it, in the hands of Trump, who has been openly hostile toward Muslims and determined to deport a million people who are in the United States without permission.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"14.0\">\u201cThese statutes are written extraordinarily broadly with the unstated premise that discretion will be exercised responsibly. And one thing this administration has shown is that it doesn\u2019t understand what it means to exercise discretion responsibly,\u201d said David Cole, a Georgetown Law professor who argued high-profile material support cases and served as national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"15.0\">At issue are DHS allegations that Soliman\u2019s involvement with an Islamic charity provided material support to the Muslim Brotherhood. But neither the charity nor the Brotherhood is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, and an Egyptian court found no official ties between the groups.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"17.0\">The Biden-era DHS, which first flagged the issue, said it would revoke Soliman\u2019s asylum if \u201ca preponderance of the evidence supports termination\u201d after a hearing, according to the December notice. At the time, court records show, the material support allegation was listed as a secondary concern after more common asylum questions about the veracity of official documents and his claims of persecution in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"18.0\">Once Trump came to power weeks later, Soliman\u2019s attorneys said, the material support claims metastasized, with U.S. authorities declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a Tier III, or undesignated, terrorist group and adding new arguments about ties to Hamas. The Brotherhood, a nearly century-old Islamist political movement, renounced violence in the 1970s, though Hamas and other spinoffs are on the U.S. blacklist. In addition to the Egypt-related concerns, DHS filings about Soliman had noted warrants for \u201cmurder and terrorism\u201d in Iraq \u2014 a country Soliman says he\u2019s never visited.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"19.0\">By elevating the national security argument, Soliman\u2019s lawyers said, DHS was able to bypass an immigration judge and order the chaplain held without bond as \u201cpotentially dangerous.\u201d An established terrorism nexus means less transparency for immigrants \u2014 and more power for the authorities.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"20.0\">\u201cDHS is judge, jury and executioner,\u201d said Robert Ratliff, one of Soliman\u2019s attorneys.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"21.0\">The idea of Soliman as a secret militant has outraged residents who know him locally as \u201cthe interfaith imam\u201d and the first Muslim on the pastoral care team at Cincinnati Children\u2019s, a top-ranked pediatric hospital. Colleagues described a popular chaplain with nicknames for the tiny patients and soothing words for their bleary-eyed parents.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"22.0\">Judy Ragsdale, the former pastoral care director who hired Soliman in 2021 shortly before retiring, said she wrote a letter to hospital leaders imploring them to speak out against the allegations that could return him to certain persecution in Egypt. He lost authorization to work in June, when his asylum was terminated.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"23.0\">\u201cThis is a \u2018Schindler\u2019s List\u2019 moment,\u201d Ragsdale said she told hospital leaders. \u201cAnd if you don\u2019t stand up for Ayman, you\u2019re complicit in what\u2019s happening to him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__caption\">Ayman Soliman, center, talking to children at a Cincinnati mosque. Soliman is in ICE detention and facing deportation to Egypt.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__credit\"><br \/>\n        <span class=\"a11y\">Credit: <\/span><br \/>\n        Maddie McGarvey for ProPublica. Faces blurred by ProPublica.<br \/>\n    <\/span><\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"25.0\">Some fear DHS is parlaying the scope and secrecy of counterterrorism laws into a weapon to boost the president\u2019s mass-deportation mission.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"26.0\">Immigrant rights groups say a sped-up campaign with fewer guardrails for due process is already leading to removals based on evidence that hasn\u2019t been fully vetted. If DHS is successful in test cases like Soliman\u2019s, they say, material support claims could be more easily applied to immigration cases with even tenuous links to militant factions, including newly designated cartels.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"27.0\">The White House referred questions to Homeland Security, which routed a request for comment to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; a spokesperson there said in a statement that the agency generally \u201cdoes not discuss the details of individual immigration cases and adjudication decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"28.0\">\u201cAn alien \u2014 even with a pending application or lawful status \u2014 is not shielded from immigration enforcement action,\u201d the statement said. The FBI declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"30.0\">Jeffrey Breinholt, an architect of the material support statutes who spent three decades as a federal terrorism prosecutor, defends the laws as crucial to closing loopholes that were exploited by foreign militant groups and their domestic sympathizers.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"31.0\">Breinholt, who retired in 2024, said he has no concerns about the widening scope as it converges with Trump\u2019s deportation push. The designation of cartels, he said, \u201cis a natural outgrowth of the success we have had with \u2018material support\u2019 crime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"32.0\">To Cole and other critics, however, the Soliman case could be \u201cthe canary in the coal mine.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>More Than a Chaplain<\/h3>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"33.0\">Within a few hours of Soliman\u2019s detention, dozens showed up for an impromptu rally and news conference in the ICE center parking lot. That backup has since grown into a hundreds-strong campaign to refute the DHS allegations, which supporters call a resurgence of anti-Muslim fearmongering that has persisted across party lines since the 9\/11 attacks 24 years ago this month.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"34.0\">\u201cAny time you have a brown man or a Muslim man and you use the words \u2018FBI\u2019 and \u2018red flag,\u2019 you don\u2019t have to say any more,\u201d said Tala Ali, a friend of Soliman\u2019s who heads the board of a Cincinnati mosque where he sometimes led prayers.<\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__caption\">Tala Ali, a close friend of Soliman and board chair of the Clifton Mosque where he sometimes led prayers<\/span><\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__credit\"><br \/>\n        <span class=\"a11y\">Credit: <\/span><br \/>\n        Maddie McGarvey for ProPublica<br \/>\n    <\/span><\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"36.0\">Voices calling for Soliman\u2019s release include parents who met him in the hospital\u2019s neonatal intensive care unit. The families are in disbelief that the chaplain they\u2019d grown close to is now jailed in a high-stakes international case. They knew he\u2019d fled Egypt but said they were learning details of his ordeal through the campaign to free him.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"37.0\">\u201cIt would be very easy to be resentful and be angry with the world when you have to live through that kind of trauma, and he\u2019s not like that at all. He\u2019s taking on other peoples\u2019 trauma,\u201d said Heather Barrow, whose infant daughter, Mya, died in the NICU last year.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"38.0\">She said Soliman stepped in to spare her grieving family the heartache of making funeral arrangements for a 5-month-old. He attended Mya\u2019s celebration of life and, later, a butterfly release on June 7, which would\u2019ve been her first birthday. A month later, he was in an ICE cell.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"39.0\">\u201cI was like, how is this happening? He was just at our house,\u201d Barrow said.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"40.0\">Another couple, Taylor and Bryan McClain, also came to rely on Soliman when their newborn, Violette, arrived at Cincinnati Children\u2019s last year with life-threatening complications. The chaplain steadied them during their 271 days in the NICU, which Taylor said felt like \u201ca roller coaster in a tornado and it\u2019s on fire.\u201d The McClains call him \u201cfamily.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"41.0\">\u201cI say with full confidence: Violette is alive because of the advocacy that Ayman gave us,\u201d Taylor said one recent afternoon as she held her daughter, now just over a year old.<\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__caption\">Bryan and Taylor McClain with their daughter, Violette. Soliman was their chaplain in the neonatal intensive care unit at Cincinnati Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__credit\"><br \/>\n        <span class=\"a11y\">Credit: <\/span><br \/>\n        Maddie McGarvey for ProPublica<br \/>\n    <\/span><\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__caption\">Letters to Soliman from children at Clifton Mosque<\/span><\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__credit\"><br \/>\n        <span class=\"a11y\">Credit: <\/span><br \/>\n        Maddie McGarvey for ProPublica<br \/>\n    <\/span><\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"44.0\">Clergy members make up another bloc of support \u2014 so many that they built a spreadsheet to divide visiting hours among imams, rabbis and pastors. Immigration advocates and Ohio civil rights leaders have added their names to petitions. So have University of Cincinnati student groups including the Ornithology Club and the Harry Potter Appreciation Club.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"46.0\">More than a dozen people faced criminal charges stemming from a melee after a rally in Soliman\u2019s support; demonstrators and police blame each other for the violence July 17.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"47.0\">Two of Soliman\u2019s fellow chaplains at Cincinnati Children\u2019s, Adam Allen and Elizabeth Diop, said they lost their jobs for refusing to keep quiet about their jailed colleague. Meanwhile, the hospital, a cherished local institution, is taking heat for its silence. Soliman\u2019s supporters launched a letter-writing campaign demanding a response from the hospital, which has said it does not discuss personnel issues.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"48.0\">Signs appeared outside the hospital. \u201cMissing Chaplain,\u201d they said. \u201cAbducted By ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__caption\">Adam Allen, a former chaplain at Cincinnati Children\u2019s, says he lost his job for refusing to keep quiet about Soliman.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__credit\"><br \/>\n        <span class=\"a11y\">Credit: <\/span><br \/>\n        Maddie McGarvey for ProPublica<br \/>\n    <\/span><\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"50.0\">Cincinnati Children\u2019s Hospital did not return messages seeking comment. In an internal memo published by The Cincinnati Enquirer, hospital CEO Dr. Steve Davis told employees that the lack of response \u201cshould not be mistaken for a lack of caring or action.\u201d As a nonprofit, Davis stressed, the hospital has strict rules about \u201cactivities that could be characterized as political.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"51.0\">Soliman\u2019s supporters press on. One recent Sunday evening, about 200 filled a Cincinnati church where preachers from several faith backgrounds urged them to demand his freedom.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"52.0\">\u201cThe trial that Imam Ayman is going through is our trial,\u201d Abdulhakim Mohamed, head of the North American Imams Fellowship, told the crowd. \u201cHis justice is ours to own. The injustice is also ours to bear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__caption\">Scenes from an interfaith service in support of Soliman<\/span><\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__credit\"><br \/>\n        <span class=\"a11y\">Credit: <\/span><br \/>\n        Maddie McGarvey for ProPublica<br \/>\n    <\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Escape From Egypt<\/h3>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"55.0\">Soliman\u2019s entanglement with the Egyptian security apparatus began in 2000 when he joined fellow college students to protest repressive laws, he said in asylum papers.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"56.0\">He was periodically locked up and intimidated after that, he said. The persecution worsened more than a decade ago during uprisings that remade the Middle East by toppling dictators \u2014 including Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak \u2014 but in some places spiraled into civil war.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"57.0\">Soliman worked as a freelance journalist covering pro-democracy revolts in Egypt and neighboring Libya. Friends say he was also studying to become an imam and served on the board of a local chapter of the Islamic charity Al-Gameya al-Shareya, which is known for its network of hospitals and orphan programs throughout Egypt.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"58.0\">The charity, whose name has multiple English spellings, launched in 1912 and is often described as \u201cone of the most established national Islamic organizations.\u201d Scholars have written that early leaders came from the Muslim Brotherhood, archenemy of Egypt\u2019s current military leadership, but that ties ended around 1990 under government pressure.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"59.0\">In the years since, researchers found, the group maintained smooth relations with the government as its more than 1,000 chapters nationwide encompass Egyptians of all political leanings. That delicate balance faltered briefly in 2013 when a military-led counterrevolution quashed the nascent democratic movement and deposed elected leaders who were part of the Muslim Brotherhood.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"61.0\">Egypt\u2019s military rulers declared the Brotherhood a terrorist organization and shuttered any organization it suspected of ties. Al-Gameya Al-Shareya was among more than 1,000 civil society groups blacklisted in the crackdown, court filings say, and chapters suspected of helping the Brotherhood during elections were dissolved. The group resumed operations the next year, when an Egyptian court lifted the ban, ruling that the charity \u201chas no ties to the Muslim Brotherhood,\u201d according to news reports.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"62.0\">Egypt\u2019s return to zero tolerance for dissidents made Soliman\u2019s activism dangerous, he said in court papers. As a journalist and Islamic scholar, he represented two fields the Egyptian government views as existential threats: a free press and religious organizing.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"63.0\">Soliman fled to the United States in 2014 on a visitor visa and later filed a petition for asylum, describing how security forces over the years had locked him up on false charges and tortured him with electrical shocks. In one incident, his attorney said, Egyptian forces with machine guns stormed into an apartment where Soliman was asleep with his wife and young child. (Through attorneys, Soliman asked to withhold details about his family because they remain in Egypt.)<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"64.0\">\u201cFor me, it\u2019s life or death,\u201d Soliman later told a U.S. immigration officer of his need to escape.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"64.1\">Officials in Cairo referred questions to the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, which did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"65.0\">The asylum application asked whether Soliman had belonged to political parties or other associations in his home country. Ratliff, the attorney, said Soliman marked \u201cyes\u201d and attached a statement that mentioned Al-Gameya Al-Shareya and his role in fundraising for the local chapter.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"66.0\">Friends said Soliman rejoiced when he was granted asylum in 2018, under the first Trump administration, and sought permanent residency as the next step toward reuniting with his family. But the process stalled. \u201cBureaucratic hurdle after bureaucratic hurdle,\u201d Ratliff said.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"67.0\">Then came a more serious snag. In 2021, Soliman learned he was on a federal watchlist when a background check for a chaplain job at an Oregon prison showed that the FBI had flagged him, court papers show.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"68.0\">His attorneys said they have no idea why. It could\u2019ve been about a specific piece of intelligence. It could\u2019ve been a misspelling or mistaken identity, simple errors that have landed ordinary Muslims on opaque \u201cwar on terror\u201d watchlists that are nearly impossible to get off.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"69.0\">Soliman, friends say, insisted on trying to clear his name. With the help of the Muslim Legal Fund of America, he sued government agencies including the FBI and the Transportation Security Administration. That route led to open-ended legal battles that yielded no clear answers and no green card.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"70.0\">Instead, his place in the country became more vulnerable. In December, the final stretch of the Biden administration, Soliman received notice that the government intended to terminate his asylum based on \u201cinconsistencies\u201d in his claims of persecution and concern that his charity work made him inadmissible based on \u201cpossible membership in a terrorist organization.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"71.0\">Some of his friends are convinced it was payback for the lawsuits, but attorneys say there\u2019s no telling what triggered a review.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"72.0\">\u201cWhat Ayman has experienced is something that, post-9\/11, has been the reality of Muslims in this country,\u201d said Ali, his friend and advocate. \u201cAll he did was try to get answers and accountability for what he\u2019d been put through.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__caption\">ICE parking spots outside of the Butler County Jail<\/span><\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__credit\"><br \/>\n        <span class=\"a11y\">Credit: <\/span><br \/>\n        Maddie McGarvey for ProPublica<br \/>\n    <\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Big Claims, Little Transparency<\/h3>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"75.0\">Contested asylum cases like Soliman\u2019s were prime targets when Trump took office the next month and supercharged deportations, a top campaign pledge. Since his return to office, ICE arrests have doubled.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"77.0\">Soliman was called to an asylum hearing in February, a month into the new administration, for a last shot at defending his eligibility. A DHS officer asked about claims in the Biden-era notice alleging \u201cdiscrepancies in date and number of times he suffered harm\u201d and raising doubts about a handwritten Egyptian police report and letters authenticating his journalistic work.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"78.0\">A transcript shows Soliman explaining that he sometimes got confused when describing traumatic incidents from years ago in English, his second language. He said the police report was a rough translation included by mistake and submitted statements verifying his journalism.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"79.0\">Then the DHS officer\u2019s questioning took a turn: \u201cWhen did you start supporting Al-Jameya Al-Shareya?\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"80.0\">For the rest of the meeting, the transcript shows, the officer drilled down on Soliman\u2019s knowledge of the charity: fundraising, chapter size, support for violence and whether he had been aware of a Brotherhood link.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"81.0\">Another of Soliman\u2019s attorneys interrupted when the immigration officer said the Brotherhood had been a Tier III group since 2012. That\u2019s not how it works, the attorney countered \u2014 only top-tier terrorist organizations like al-Qaida or the Islamic State are given dates of designation. Tier III, she said, is for undesignated groups and is determined on a case-by-case basis, with the burden of proof on the government.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"82.0\">\u201cCounsel, I\u2019ll give you an opportunity at the end to make a closing,\u201d the DHS officer said.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"82.1\">\u201cI understand,\u201d the attorney replied, \u201cbut we\u2019re talking about something factual.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"83.0\">The next time Soliman heard from DHS was the official termination of his asylum, effective June 3. This time, there was no hedging in language that declared he was ineligible based on \u201cevidence that indicated you provided material support to a Tier III terrorist organization.\u201d A few weeks later, he was taken into custody and notified of his pending removal.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"84.0\">Soliman\u2019s legal team sued, arguing that he was stripped of asylum on illegal grounds because the designations had been made \u201cwithout proper findings\u201d and based on no new evidence.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"84.1\">Court filings show DHS attorneys introducing, then withdrawing or amending, materials to build a case linking Soliman to the Brotherhood through the charity.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"84.2\">\u201cIt looked like, \u2018What can we put here to get to there?\u2019\u201d said Ratliff, a former immigration judge.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"85.0\">Among the supporting evidence filed by the government are three academic reports by scholars with deep knowledge of Islamic charities in Egypt. Soliman\u2019s legal team filed statements from all three balking at how DHS had cherry-picked their research.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"86.0\">Steven Brooke at the University of Wisconsin-Madison detailed \u201cimportant mistakes of fact and interpretation.\u201d Neil Russell, an academic in Scotland, called the U.S. conclusions \u201ca mischaracterization of my findings.\u201d Marie Vannetzel, a French scholar who has conducted field research with Al-Gameya Al-Shareya, rebutted what she called \u201ca dishonest manipulation of my text and my work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"87.0\">Vannetzel wrote that she rejects the idea that Soliman, \u201csimply by virtue of his activity in the association, could be accused of providing material support to the Muslim Brotherhood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"89.0\">Observers of Cairo\u2019s unsparing campaign to uproot Islamist opposition say the matter is clear-cut: If the charity survived the scrutiny of Egyptian intelligence, then it\u2019s not Muslim Brotherhood. \u201cIt\u2019s really striking that this group is not proscribed,\u201d said Michael Hanna, an Egypt specialist and U.S. program director of the nonprofit International Crisis Group.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"90.0\">Soliman\u2019s attorneys also criticized the government\u2019s assertion in court filings that he, as a board member of one local branch, would\u2019ve been aware of any Brotherhood affiliation of chapters nationwide. \u201cIf a Rotarian in Seattle commits murder, we don\u2019t go charging Rotarians in Des Moines with conspiracy,\u201d Ratliff said.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"91.0\">Separate from U.S. attempts to tie Soliman to the Brotherhood was a puzzling footnote about Iraq that appeared in a later filing. Without detail, DHS attorneys alluded to warrants for \u201cmurder and terrorism activities.\u201d Ratliff said a DHS attorney later confirmed to him in a phone call that it wasn\u2019t about Soliman, but didn\u2019t explain why it was there.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"92.0\">The error remained uncorrected in filings until Sept. 3, when DHS attorney Cheryl Gutridge acknowledged in court that it was an \u201cinadvertent\u201d reference to another case, Ohio news outlets reported. The original wording suggesting that Soliman faced murder charges in Iraq had been included in the government\u2019s successful argument for keeping him in custody.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"93.0\">DHS did not address questions about the Iraq reference.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"93.1\">A close friend, Ahmed Elkady, said Soliman told him on a jail visit he was stunned to be linked to Iraq, a place he\u2019s never been: \u201cHe said, \u2018How can I become a virtual terrorist?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__caption\">Ahmed Elkady said Soliman told him on a jail visit he was stunned to be linked to Iraq, a place he\u2019s never been.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__credit\"><br \/>\n        <span class=\"a11y\">Credit: <\/span><br \/>\n        Maddie McGarvey for ProPublica<br \/>\n    <\/span><\/p>\n<h3>A Sheriff\u2019s ICE Fiefdom<\/h3>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"96.0\">As he awaits trial in immigration court, Soliman is in custody at the Butler County Jail, about 30 miles outside of Cincinnati, past cornfields and a German social club and the Town and Country Mobile Home Park.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"97.0\">For more than 20 years, this outpost has been the domain of Sheriff Richard Jones, a cowboy hat-wearing firebrand who keeps a framed photo of Trump in his office. In the run-up to the 2024 election, Jones mused that a Trump victory might put him \u201cback in the deportation business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n                <strong class=\"story-promo__hed\">\u201cWe\u2019ll Smash the Fucking Window Out and Drag Him Out\u201d<\/strong>\n                            <\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"99.0\">From 2003 to 2021, the jail had been contracted to house immigration detainees until the arrangement dissolved in the Biden era. As predicted, the county entered into a new agreement with ICE in February, after Trump returned to power, to hold around 400 detainees: $68 a day per person, plus $36 an hour for the sheriff\u2019s office toward transportation.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"100.0\">Jones celebrated the restored partnership by posting a fake image showing inflatable gators outside the jail, a nod to ICE\u2019s \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d detention center in Florida. A Black Lives Matter group in Dayton issued a statement calling the sheriff\u2019s post an \u201cegregious act of cruelty and historical mockery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"101.0\">As it returns to deportation work, the jail still faces a federal civil rights lawsuit filed in 2020 by two ICE prisoners who said they endured beatings and discrimination. One plaintiff, a Muslim, said a jailer called him a \u201cfucking terrorist\u201d and threatened to throw his prayer rug in the toilet. Jones has disputed the claims.<\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__caption\">Imams Mutazz Alabd and Ihab Alsaghier visit the Butler County Jail in hopes of seeing Soliman.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__credit\"><br \/>\n        <span class=\"a11y\">Credit: <\/span><br \/>\n        Maddie McGarvey for ProPublica<br \/>\n    <\/span><\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"103.0\">The sheriff is in the news again because of Soliman. In court filings, the Muslim chaplain says he was denied access to a space where he could lead communal prayers and then placed in \u201cisolation\u201d for nearly a week with only an hour of phone access between midnight and 1 a.m.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"105.0\">Soliman\u2019s attorneys say in court papers that the episode was related to \u201ctargeted harassment\u201d over his religion. The sheriff\u2019s office told local outlets that it respects religious freedom and said Soliman was placed in isolation because he was \u201cargumentative\u201d and \u201cthreatening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"106.0\">After agreeing to an interview with ProPublica, Jones later decided he was \u201cno longer interested,\u201d the sheriff\u2019s spokesperson, Deputy Kim Peters, wrote in a text message.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"107.0\">As he languishes in jail, Soliman\u2019s empty apartment in Cincinnati has become a way station for an inner circle of supporters, who said they felt like \u201cintruders\u201d when they first gathered there. Soliman is known as an elegant dresser, but his apartment was in bachelor-pad disarray, a reflection of his long hours at the hospital and the abruptness of his detention, said his friends, also clerics. The imams laughed when one confessed that he first thought the FBI had ransacked the place.<\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__caption\">Soliman\u2019s apartment has become a way station for supporters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"attribution__credit\"><br \/>\n        <span class=\"a11y\">Credit: <\/span><br \/>\n        Maddie McGarvey for ProPublica<br \/>\n    <\/span><\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"109.0\">Over water bottles and energy drinks scavenged from Soliman\u2019s fridge, they talked about the deportation threat. In Egypt, pro-government news outlets already have trumpeted the case as proof that Soliman was leading a secret Brotherhood cell in America.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"110.0\">Despite Soliman\u2019s predicament, they said, being in limbo here is preferable to the alternative.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"110.1\">\u201cYou think I\u2019m afraid of being here in jail?\u201d Soliman told fellow imam Ihab Alsaghier during a recent visit. \u201cEvery moment I\u2019m alone, I imagine I\u2019m on a flight back to Egypt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they\u2019re published. Reporting Highlights Evidence: The government seeks to deport an Ohio chaplain, but its case has come under scrutiny from supporters and legal advocates. Support: The U.S. paints the chaplain as a link in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[12338,1844,3095,660,2081,247,12339,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-20076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-ayman","9":"tag-case","10":"tag-crackdown","11":"tag-fuel","12":"tag-immigration","13":"tag-propublica","14":"tag-soliman","15":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}