Ester Soliman cooks in the Saint James Episcopal Church kitchen in Lancaster, Pa., on Nov. 9, 2024. ICE detained Ester Soliman on Aug. 4, 2025.
Brian Nguyen
ICE arrests Lancaster city mother at Alternatives to Detention hearing
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Jordan Wilkie/WITF
Brian Nguyen
Ester Soliman cooks in the Saint James Episcopal Church kitchen in Lancaster, Pa., on Nov. 9, 2024. ICE detained Ester Soliman on Aug. 4, 2025.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest of a Lancaster resident is drawing attention, and donations, from several of Lancaster’s public officials, including a state representative and the mayor.
Ester Soliman came to the U.S. legally 25 years ago, according to a fundraising page posted online by her family. The page states Soliman, who started her green card application process last year through the sponsorship of her youngest daughter, was detained by ICE at a hearing on Monday.
Posted Thursday night, the fundraiser garnered almost 300 donations and $20,600 in the first 20 hours. The goal is to pay for the family’s legal fees, according to the online post.
“The community’s response to this, I hope, helps the Soliman family to know and understand that we are as a community behind them, that we do understand them as our neighbors and our friends,” said state Rep. Izzy Smith-Wade-El, a Democrat whose 49th District includes half of Lancaster city.
Soliman received a notification to appear at an Alternatives to Detention hearing on Aug. 4, where she was detained by ICE. The family did not respond to requests for comment.
ICE uses the Alternatives to Detention program to monitor immigration cases “where detention is not necessary or appropriate,” according to their website.
Soliman is currently being held at the Clinton County Correctional Facility, an over two-and-a-half-hour drive from Lancaster. Administrators at the facility confirmed her detention, though she did not appear in the online ICE detainee lookup tool as of Friday afternoon.
ICE did not respond to questions about why Soliman was detained or why she was not in the public lookup system by the time of publication.
Lancaster Mayor Danene Sorace said she was shocked to hear how Soliman was arrested. Both she and Smith-Wade-El said they know Ester Soliman’s son, Sam Soliman, through city events where he attends as a photographer.
“The City of Lancaster is a tight-knit community and we care about our neighbors,” Sorace said. “Esther is a neighbor and she has been for a very long time. She’s raised her three children here. They’re part of our community.”
Both Smith-Wade-El and Sorace said they advised the family to contact their elected federal officials, as ICE is a federal agency. Smith-Wade-El said he reached out to the offices of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker, a Republican. Fetterman’s office did not respond to questions by the time of publication.
A spokesperson for Smucker, Eric Reath, said the congressman’s office “is not able to publicly comment on actions we take to assist constituents” without their written approval, according to federal law.
City Council President Amanda Bakay also donated to the Soliman family’s fundraiser, as did former Democratic county commissioner John Trescot. Other Lancaster notables who have donated include Sam Bressi of the Lancaster County Community Foundation, and Rabbi Jack Paskoff of the Shaarai Shomayim congregation.
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