Controversial 'ICE detention' of US citizen Sunny Naqvi: DHS releases video footage of Illinois woman leaving

The alleged 43-hour detention of 28-year-old Sundas (Sunny) Naqvi turned more controversial as the Department of Homeland Security has now released video footage of Naqvi entering the CBP area at 10.21 am, entering the secondary inspection at 10.46 am and then leaving for the public area at 11.42 am. "Her claims of spending 43 hours in DHS custody are FALSE," the DHS said.

Many social media users claimed that the DHS edited that footage and adjusted the time to fit their narrative.

But now Naqvi's version has also come on the radar because of her past incidents involving law enforcement. The Chicago Tribune reported that Naqvi pleaded guilty in 2022 to making a false police report alleging sexual assault against a professor in 2019. She completed two years of probation for that case in 2024, records show, and the case was then dismissed.

Detention of Sunny Naqvi: Here's what happened so far

• Sunny Naqvi's family and a local politician, Cook County commissioner Kevin Morrison, said Naqvi was in ICE detention for two days and they were not informed properly by the authorities.
• Naqvi was reportedly traveling to India with a group of six people, including her, but they were not allowed to travel further into the Middle East because of a visa problem with one of the six. They returned to Chicago from Istanbul Thursday and it was then that they were detained, the allegation said.
• The family members said Naqvi was taken to Immigration and Customs Enforcement centers in two different states, before she was released on Saturday early morning.

The DHS countered the claim and said she was only referred to a secondary inspection and was released within 90 minutes. Her story is a blatant lie, they said. The administration also said she was stopped because of her past criminal cases.

Naqvi's LinkedIn page listed her as a senior solution architect of a company that said that she never worked for them. The company also said none of their employees were detained at O'Hare, Chicago Tribune reported.

The sheriff’s offices in Cook County and Dodge County, Wisconsin said there was no indication of her being detained at local facilities.

'I think I'm at an ICE detention center'

The entire incident started gathering attention after Morrison, who is running for Congress, posted screeshots Friday fo his campaign Facebook page of her alleged cellphone location. The images appeared to show she was inside the ICE processing center in Broadview, then later at a detention center in Dodge County, Wisconsin.

“I think im at an ice detention center,” Naqvi wrote in one apparent text message at 5:39 pm. Friday that Morrison posted online that evening.