An Illinois woman, Sunny Naqvi, has been sued for $1 million over her “false story” about being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A Wisconsin sheriff has now filed a lawsuit against an Illinois woman, Sunny Naqvi, who claimed in March that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents detained her at O’Hare International Airport and then transferred her to an ICE facility.
The alleged detention made national headlines as Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison, a family friend, exaggerated 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 landing and was never detained by ICE. Now Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt has filed a defamation lawsuit against Naqvi and Morrison, presenting evidence that he says proves her claims are false.
Schmidt, who posted videos, documents and text messages, claimed that there is absolutely no confirmed evidence to support what Naqvi claimed. “At no time was Sundas Naqvi in the custody of the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office,” he added.
“Sunny Naqvi checked into a hotel.”
Her family members raised the alarm when Sunny Naqvi could not be traced, but Schmidt now claims there was clear evidence that Naqvi checked into a hotel in Rosemont, Illinois, about three hours after she arrived at O’Hare on March 5.
He also showed surveillance video that appeared to show Naqvi being driven to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and then back to the Chicago area on March 7 by an ex-boyfriend.Al-Sharif said that her ex-boyfriend told him that he gave Naqvi about $25,000 over a period of weeks, including the price of her trip to Türkiye.“I don’t have any charges here in Dodge County to press against her. My only recourse is to make sure the public knows she can’t do this,” Schmidt said, adding that Naqvi’s story has damaged the agency’s reputation. Naqvi’s family and lawyer at the time claimed that she was arrested along with others due to their strange travel history. According to one account, the group, which included three American citizens, including Naqvi and three green card holders of Pakistani origin, originally planned to travel to India. But they could not travel further than Türkiye and had to return to the United States. Upon their return, they were allegedly stopped and Naqvi’s lawyer claimed they were in ICE custody.
The family claimed they were held at the airport for 30 hours, then transferred to a facility in Illinois, and then to Wisconsin’s Dodge County. This last part is the basis 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 a victim of sexual assault. Naqvi has also been evicted twice in recent years, Cook County court records show. “In 2024, a River North apartment complex said it owed more than $43,000 in rent and fees. Around the same time, JPMorgan said it owed about $15,000 in unpaid credit card debt,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.