U.S. Citizen Detained at O’Hare Airport for Two Days, Only for Federal Agents to Claim She Was Never Detained

Edit: The Dodge County Sheriff in Wisconsin is also now claiming that Sunny Naqvi was never booked into their system, raising even more questions about this odd case. It seems increasingly clear that multiple people here have to be lying, and it would seemingly have to either be the collective group of Naqvi, her entire family and friends, all other five people who were detained, her lawyers and a Cook County Commissioner, or all of CBP and now a Wisconsin sheriff as well. We’ll be keeping an eye on this story in the hope that more definitive evidence is offered up.

To those Americans with their heads buried firmly in the sand, U.S. citizenship often seems to be perceived as some kind of shield of protection that will inevitably safeguard them from having the same indignities foisted upon them as we simply accept being inflicted on everyone else who has been detained by federal immigration agents in the last year. It should be obvious to all by this point that this isn’t the case—when your turn comes around, the agent of ICE or Border Patrol you’re facing down won’t care that you’re a U.S. citizen. Fish out a xerox of your birth certificate or social security card; it won’t make a difference in America’s fascism era. Hell, they won’t even admit that you’re in their custody when your family demands to know where the fuck you are. Just look at what happened to Chicago resident and U.S. citizen Sunny Naqvi last week—she was reportedly detained at O’Hare International Airport because CBP didn’t like the look of her travel history, and spent the next two days in detention while agents lied to her family, likely only being eventually released (in a different state) because she had a local elected official as a family friend. Oh, and then CBP claimed she was never detained.

Sundas “Sunny” Naqvi is a 28-year-old, born and raised in the northern Chicago suburb of Evanston. She reportedly works for German software company SAP SE, and was traveling internationally as part of a group of six legal U.S. residents for work: Three citizens and three green card holders who have Pakistani passports. They were on their way to India on a work trip, but were turned back during a layover in Istanbul due to visa issues, according to Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison, a family friend of the Naqvis who ultimately assisted when she was detained. Thus, the group of six ultimately flew back home to Chicago, only to find agents of Customs and Border Protection waiting to detain them on Thursday morning when they arrived. According to Morrison, the only reason cited for why they were all being detained was their “recent travel history.” None of the other individuals’ names have been made public.

Reminder: DHS is still routinely violating people’s constitutional rights.

Democrats must continue to fight to rein them in.

https://abc7chicago.com/post/sunny-naqvi-us-citizen-detained-dhs-chicago-ohare-airport-sent-broadview-ice-facility-dodge-county-wi-released/18693499/

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— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) Mar 9, 2026 at 5:15 PM

The family of Sunny Naqvi says she spent the next 30 hours in detention at O’Hare, before the group was eventually taken to Chicago’s ICE facility in Broadview on Friday evening. Immediately prior to Cook County Commissioner Morrison performing a walk-through of the facility that night, Naqvi and the others were then suddenly transported across state lines to the Dodge Detention Facility in Wisconsin, where they were eventually released early on Saturday morning, nine miles away from the detention center, where they were forced to hitchhike to somewhere they could be picked up. All told, Naqvi’s family says she was in detention for just under two days, with zero charges filed or formal accusations made against them. And the entire time that Naqvi was in detention, her family says federal agents refused to admit that they had her, or where she was. They only knew her location, in fact, by tracking the location of her phone—first to the ICE facility in Chicago, and then to Wisconsin. The family has provided images of this.

“We were being lied to our faces,” said sister Sarah Afzal to Block Club Chicago. “We saw her location smack dab in the middle of the [Broadview] facility. We saw her location in Wisconsin in the middle of that facility … We were in contact with her, and they kept being like, ‘I don’t know what to tell you.'”

But wait, it gets more outrageous. In a jaw-dropping statement, a spokesperson for CBP speaking to Block Club Chicago on Monday claimed that the entire story involving Naqvi is “blatantly false,” and that she was only in their custody for 90 minutes.

“Summer Sundas ‘Sunny’ Naqvi, arrived at O’Hare at 10:21 a.m. on March 5, 2026,” says the CBP statement. “CBP officers referred her to Secondary, for additional inspection based on law enforcement checks and conducted a baggage exam. Ms. Naqvi departed CBP within 90 minutes of her arrival to the United States. Ms. Naqvi was not taken into custody or transferred to ICE for detention.”

So Customs and Border Protection is claiming, essentially, that this group of six people are ALL LYING about having been detained for two days, and that their families, friends and lawyers are also lying and in on a massive conspiracy, and that a Cook County Commissioner is also lying, and that the family has fabricated fake phone data showing that Naqvi was taken to the ICE facility in Chicago and then to Wisconsin. It’s either all of that, or CBP is lying about having detained a U.S. citizen. Which of those would satisfy Occam’s razor?

“They have been lying from the very start of this,” said Morrison on Monday. “I don’t think they want to own up to the fact that, once again, they have illegally detained American citizens without due process. It sounds like they are trying to create a cover-up. They are seeking not to have any accountability whatsoever. And I think this is terrifying and concerning to us all. We need transparency of the facts of what actually occurred. We need accountability for everyone who took part in this moment. But we need investigations by our Congress, and we need action and legislation to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”

Meet Sunny Naqvi.

A lifelong U.S. Citizen from Illinois, Naqvi was returning home from a business trip with 5 other people, who were all in the country legally. She was then detained by immigration officials at O’Hare Airport for 30 hours before being transferred to an ICE detention facility in WI.

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— Senator Chris Larson (@senchrislarson.bsky.social) Mar 9, 2026 at 5:00 PM

It is clear, regardless of what happened, that Naqvi is very fortunate to have had a local elected official wielding legitimate governmental power as a family friend, although it begs the obvious question: What would have happened to her if she didn’t have that friend? What are family members of a citizen supposed to do when federal agents detain someone, and then claim that they haven’t detained the person?

“Thank God [Afzal] reached out to me,” Morrison said in a statement to media. “No one should need to have an elected official have to further someone’s voice when their constitutional rights are being impeded on. I’m glad I was able to help in this moment.”

Naqvi’s attorney, Robert Held, decried her detention at a press conference with Morrison, speaking to the media.

“This is what’s happening around the country,” Held said. “The neighborhoods and communities that are being traumatized and terrorized are taking the brunt of this administration’s racist policies. This reign of terror will end one day those responsible will be held to account. There must be transparency and accountability.”

Local candidates running for Congress in Chicago’s 7th and 9th Districts also attended the press conference and called for immigration reform and overview, while pointing out the obvious: Only a sufficient public outcry succeeded in getting Naqvi released from federal agents who wouldn’t even admit to her family that she was in their possession.

“They were only brought home after their families and our community refused to back down and kept asking for answers,” said congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh. “This is going to be the new normal if we don’t stand up against it.”