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Fact check: Was the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Chaplin detained by ICE for over 73 days?
Executive Summary
Ayman Soliman, the former Cincinnati Children’s Hospital chaplain, was detained by ICE in July 2025 and released in September 2025 after immigration authorities dropped their case; multiple contemporaneous reports place his time in custody at roughly 70–72 days, not definitively “over 73 days.” Some outlets rounded detention to “over 10 weeks” or “approximately 73 days,” producing small discrepancies in reported duration; the preponderance of reporting indicates his custody lasted just under or around the 73-day mark [1] [2] [3].
1. Why the Numbers Don’t Line Up: Rounding, Reporting, and Timelines
Contemporaneous coverage shows variation in how reporters converted weeks into days, and that accounts for much of the disagreement over whether Soliman’s detention exceeded 73 days. Several September 2025 reports describe his stay as “about 70 days” or “approximately 70 days” and say his release followed the Department of Homeland Security decision to drop its case [4] [5]. Other accounts use the shorthand “over 10 weeks,” which mathematically can range from 71 to 77 days depending on whether a reporter counts partial weeks, producing phrasing that can be read as either under or over 73 days [3]. The most precise single figure among the sources is 72 days reported in one September article, which is explicitly less than 73 days [2].
2. The Anchor Dates Reported by News Outlets: Arrest and Release
News accounts converge on the same anchor events: an ICE detention beginning in early July 2025 after Soliman’s asylum status was revoked and a release in late September 2025 when DHS abandoned its revocation effort. One July article notes his detention began on July 9, 2025, without specifying total days, while multiple September pieces specify the release and characterize his custody as “over 70 days” or roughly 10 weeks [1] [3] [4]. The combination of a July 9 start date and a late-September release aligns numerically with roughly 70–75 days in custody; most outlets that provided explicit day counts landed near 70–72 days, not above 73 [2] [4].
3. How Different Outlets Framed the Detention — Tone and Emphasis
Coverage varied in emphasis: some pieces foregrounded legal and administrative details, noting DHS’s revocation and subsequent withdrawal of the case; others highlighted community reaction and Soliman’s personal account of detention. Reports stressing community outrage sometimes used broader phrasing like “over 10 weeks” to underscore perceived injustice, while legal-focused stories provided more precise day counts and direct procedural context [3] [4]. The differing narrative priorities suggest possible agenda-driven phrasing, where outlets emphasizing advocacy or moral narratives favored rounded week-based descriptions, and legal reporting favored specific day counts [6] [2].
4. Legal Context That Matters for Counting Days
The duration question interacts with immigration process sequencing—administrative revocation, detention by ICE, bond petitions, and eventual DHS withdrawal—that can introduce ambiguity about which dates are counted as “detention.” Some reports state Soliman’s asylum status was terminated in June, with physical custody starting July 9; others note legal motions and bond requests during his custody, which complicate whether elapsed time is counted from initial detention or from other procedural milestones [7] [1]. Because the sources use different start/end anchors, disparities of a day or two are plausible and account for claims that he was detained “over 73 days” versus “about 70–72 days” [3] [2].
5. Cross-Source Synthesis: What the Evidence Most Reliably Shows
Weighing all contemporaneous reports together, the most consistent conclusion is that Soliman spent approximately 70–72 days in Butler County Jail before release, with at least one reputable article explicitly giving 72 days and several others describing “about 70 days” or “over 10 weeks” [2] [4] [5]. Only some headlines or shorthand accounts implied a period that could be interpreted as exceeding 73 days; no provided source offers incontrovertible documentation of a detention period definitively longer than 73 days [3] [4].
6. What Remains Unresolved and Where to Look Next
The remaining uncertainty centers on the precise counting method—whether reporters included partial days, the exact jail entry and release timestamps, and whether any short absences from custody occurred. To fully resolve the “over 73 days” claim would require primary records such as Butler County Jail intake/release logs or DHS detention records; none of the supplied secondary reports include those documents. Until such primary documentation is published, the balance of published reporting indicates Soliman’s detention was close to but not demonstrably over 73 days [2] [5] [3].
7. Bottom Line for the Claim: Was He Held Over 73 Days?
Based on the available contemporaneous reporting, the claim that the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital chaplain was detained by ICE for over 73 days is not supported as a clear-cut fact; the preponderance of sources places the detention at roughly 70–72 days, with some outlets using phrasing that can be interpreted to exceed 73 days but without precise documentation to prove it [2] [4] [3]. The difference may matter to particular narratives, so those asserting “over 73 days” should cite primary detention records to substantiate that specific threshold.