Ohio mosque worshippers reel after imam is detained by Ice: ‘No one is ever truly safe'

The Guardian

5 days ago

A week after the detention of their imam, Egyptian-born Ayman Soliman, worshippers at the Clifton mosque in Cincinnati, Ohio, are still in shock.
Soliman was detained on 9 July while attending a regular check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers, weeks after being told that his asylum status had been terminated, a provision that he had held for more than seven years.
'People in the community are saying that if [Ice] can come for our leaders, our scholars and our elders, then we are nothing,' says Tala Ali, the chair of the Clifton mosque.
'They're scared, they're angry. They're also broken-hearted; they're praying for him.'
Lawyers for Soliman say that US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) alleges he provided material support to a so-called 'Tier III' terrorist organization, namely the Muslim Brotherhood, through his involvement with Al-Gameya al-Shareya, a prominent charity organization in Egypt.
'Tier III' refers to groups that are not officially designated terrorist organizations by the US Department of State, but which an asylum officer may determine to be as such on a case-by-case basis.
Soliman, a former chaplain at Cincinnati children's hospital, came to the US in 2014 and was granted asylum status in 2018.
In Egypt, Soliman worked as a freelance journalist for a Spanish outlet during the popular uprising against and overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president, in 2011 and in the tumultuous years that preceded Egypt's return to authoritarian rule two years later. He was one of nearly 15,000 Egyptians granted affirmative asylum in the US – the third most from any country in the nine years that followed the Egyptian military's 2013 coup and subsequent crackdown.
Having previously lived in Oregon and Chicago, Soliman has said he believes his life would be at risk were he forced to return to Egypt. He received notice that the process to terminate his asylum status was under way last December.
Soliman is set to appear via video link before an immigration judge to hear his case on 22 July, the day before he is due to have an immigration bond hearing, which would determine whether he can be released while his case is pending.
As with thousands of others caught up in the Trump administration's anti-immigration drive, Soliman's case has been marked by confusion and an apparent arbitrary series of processes.
The government's reasoning is 'illogical, and its conclusion is wrong', says Julia Healy, an attorney at the Law Office of Nazly Mamedova, a firm representing Soliman.
'USCIS terminated Ayman's asylum status by conducting wild leaps of association: jumping from Ayman's membership in a very well-known charity organization in Egypt, to alleging that because of his membership in this organization, he provided material support to the Muslim Brotherhood, which USCIS is calling a 'Tier III Terrorist Organization'.'
Neither the Muslim Brotherhood nor Al-Gameya al-Shareya are designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the US government.
On 9 July, the Department of Homeland Security's assistant secretary for public affairs, Tricia McLaughlin, further muddied the waters writing on X that Soliman was flagged for being on an FBI 'terror watchlist'.
The admission has followed a years-long attempt by Soliman and his legal representatives to find out if and why he was on such a list.
A lawsuit filed by Soliman's lawyers against several Biden-era officials last December claims that he '(R)easonably believes his name appears in the TSDS (Terrorist Screening Database) because of its impact on his immigration proceedings' and that his fingerprints do not match those recorded in that database.
'This USCIS termination letter is the only explanation we have of these alleged connections, and they are so incredibly weak that they appear to be a pretext for targeting Ayman,' says Healy.
That targeting could be, Soliman's lawyers and supporters believe, retaliation for suing the government after he sought information about a security flag that appeared during a background check when he applied for a job in Oregon several years ago.
The USCIS website says the grant of asylum can be terminated in cases where the grantee no longer meets the definition of a refugee, is convicted of a 'particularly serious crime', is a security threat, or for a number of other reasons.
The termination of asylum status is highly uncommon.
'Asylum termination is incredibly rare, but if you challenge the US government, you might put a target on your back,' says Healy.
'This also demonstrates how no one is ever truly safe under these current policies. Any asylum officer may re-interpret historical events and issue this type of ruling.'
Emails sent by the Guardian to Ice's media department asking why Soliman's asylum status was revoked and whether the reason for doing so is related to his alleged being on an FBI 'terror watchlist' did not receive a response.
'He is being targeted or profiled, or maybe it's a wrong assessment from the homeland security officer,' says Ahmed Elkady, an Egyptian-born doctor and one of three of Soliman's contacts permitted to visit him in jail.
'We know the system in Egypt. [If he is sent back] you won't know where he will go to or how long he will stay because there is no court hearing, there is nothing.'
Soliman has received public support from the Greater Cincinnati Board of Rabbis, and hundreds of people in the Ohio city have been turning out at protests against his detention in recent days.
Soliman is being held 18 miles north at the notorious Butler county jail, a facility whose sheriff has openly advocated for cash in return for holding individuals detained by Ice, and which bears a sign on its grounds that says:'illegal aliens here'. On 16 July, Soliman was granted a temporary restraining order that would prevent his potential transfer out of Ohio until at least his bond hearing on 23 July.
Ali, who speaks with Soliman every day, says he recently led one of the first Friday prayers for Muslims being held at the jail.
'He's also helped people get kosher food, since there is no access to halal meals,' she says.
Among the 1,000-strong worshipers at the Clifton mosque, one of the oldest mosques in Cincinnati that opened in the late 1960s chiefly to serve students from the nearby university, the fear – and not just for their imam – is real.
Ali says she has received reports from Muslim residents that Ice agents are knocking on their doors.
'There are some members of our community who say agents identifying themselves as Ice are stopping at people's houses and interrogating them and asking them about Ayman,' she says.
'There is nothing here that people know that they don't already know.'