A Wisconsin sheriff has now sued Illinois woman Sunny Naqvi who claimed in March that she was detained by the US Customs and Border Protection agents at O'Hare International Airport and then was taken to the ICE facility. The alleged detention became national headlines as Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison, a family friend, amplified the incident and demanded her release. When she was released, the Department of Homeland Security released footage showing that Naqvi was allowed to leave the airport about 90 minutes after she landed and she was never detained by ICE.
Now Dodge County sheriff Dale Schmidt filed a defamation lawsuit against Naqvi and Morrison, and outlined evidence he said proves her claims were false. Releasing videos, documents and text messages, Schmidt claimed that there was no verified evidence at all supporting what Naqvi claimed.
"At no point was Sundas Naqvi in the custody of the Dodge County Sheriff's office," he said.
'Sunny Naqvi checked into a hotel'
Her family members raised an alarm when Sunny Naqvi was untraceable but now Schmidt claimed that there was evidence to show that Naqvi checked into a hotel in Rosemont, Illinois, about three hours after she landed at O'Hare on March 5. He also showed surveillance video that appears to show Naqvi was driven to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and back to the Chicago area on March 7 by an ex-boyfriend.
The sheriff said the ex-boyfriend told him he gave Naqvi about $25,000 over a matter of weeks, including for her flight to Turkey. He also said that the ex-boyfriend knew that she was not detained by the ICE but later joined the 'false narrative' of the family.
"I don't have any charges here in Dodge County to bring against her. My only recourse is to make sure that the public knows that she can't do this," Schmidt said, adding that Naqvi's story damaged the agency's reputation.
Naqvi's family and the lawyer at that time claimed that she was detained along with others because of their 'curious travel history'. According to one account, the group that included 3 US citizens, including Naqvi and 3 Pakistani-origin Green Card holders, originally planned to travel to India. But they could not travel further from Turkey and had to return to US. On their return, they were allegedly stopped and Naqvi's lawyer claimed they were detained in ICE custody. The family claimed they were held at the airport for 30 hours, then they were moved to a facility in Illinois, and then to Wisconsin Dodge County. This last part is the foundation of the lawsuit but neither Naqvi nor Morrison commented on the lawsuit.
Naqvi does not have a clean record as she was convicted of lying about being the victim of a sexual assault. Naqvi has also been evicted twice in recent years, Cook County court records show. "In 2024, a River North apartment complex said she owed over $43,000 in rent and fees. Around the same time, JP Morgan said she owed nearly $15,000 in unpaid credit card debt," Chicago Sun Times reported.
