Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt said Friday that Sundas “Sunny” Naqvi engineered an elaborate hoax to make it appear she had been detained by federal immigration agents for more than a day, and he presented what he called evidence to back it up.
Schmidt said Naqvi, 28, falsely claimed she was held last month at the county jail and at a suburban U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. He said text messages, surveillance footage and hotel records show she went from O’Hare Airport to a Rosemont hotel before asking someone to drive her to Wisconsin, where she later reunited with her family.
The sheriff also said cellphone location records indicating she was inside the jail were likely spoofed. He said he could not charge Naqvi with any crimes in Wisconsin, so he referred the matter to other agencies, including the FBI and Illinois State Police, and filed a federal defamation lawsuit against Naqvi and Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison seeking $1 million.
Last month, Morrison stood with Naqvi’s family and other supporters as they drew attention to what they said was her detention by federal immigration agents. They said Naqvi and five colleagues had been detained at O’Hare while returning from an overseas work trip, then taken to the ICE facility in Broadview before Naqvi was transferred in ICE custody to Dodge County Jail in Wisconsin. Supporters circulated screenshots that purported to show she had been taken to both places.
That account began unraveling as other agencies pushed back. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security earlier released images showing Naqvi leaving a secure area at O’Hare an hour after she was flagged for screening, and the Cook County sheriff’s office said she was not found during a search of the Broadview facility. Officials have said there is no evidence corroborating her story.
Schmidt, who said Naqvi has a history of lying to police, added that he did not understand why she would do it. “I don’t have an answer for why you would do something like that,” he said. “Maybe it’s just to go after President Trump. Maybe it’s just to go after ICE. Maybe it’s because it’s something she enjoys doing.”
The case has now moved from a dispute over what happened at the airport and in detention facilities to a broader fight over credibility, public attention and money. With a federal defamation suit filed and no Wisconsin charges available, the next step is in the hands of other investigators and the court.
