A Chicago-area traveler says she was detained for nearly two days after landing at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, raising questions about why federal authorities held a U.S. citizen for so long.
U.S. Citizen Says She Was Detained At Chicago O’Hare For 43 Hours After “Curious Travel History” Flag
A 28-year-old U.S. citizen from the Chicago suburbs says she was detained by federal authorities for roughly 43 hours after arriving at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD).
Sunny Naqvi, who was born in Evanston and raised in the Chicago area, was returning from an overseas trip when she and several colleagues were suddenly detained by Department of Homeland Security officials at O’Hare. According to her family and attorney, the only explanation given by authorities was that Naqvi had a “curious travel history.”
Naqvi says she was eventually released early Saturday morning after being transferred to detention facilities in Illinois and Wisconsin.
Detained At O’Hare With Colleagues After International Trip
Per Naqvi, she had been traveling with five coworkers on what was originally intended to be a work trip to India for German software company SAP.
The group included three U.S. citizens and three permanent residents who hold Pakistani passports. The trip ultimately fell apart when the green-card holders were unable to transit through Istanbul (IST) due to visa issues.
Instead, the group continued traveling in Europe before returning to the United States.
When they arrived at O’Hare, federal agents detained all six travelers.
Naqvi’s family says she spent roughly 30 hours inside O’Hare before being moved to an immigration processing facility in Broadview, Illinois.
Family Tracked Her Phone To ICE Facility
During the detention, Naqvi’s family says they attempted to locate her through the location-sharing feature on her phone.
At one point, her phone’s location indicated she was at the Broadview ICE Processing Facility.
Family members said officials repeatedly denied she was there, even as the phone location continued to show the device inside the facility.
Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison later described what happened next:
“They asked for Sunny’s phone number so they could search the facility for her phone. About 10 minutes later, the phone was opened, text messages were read and the phone was turned off, and we lost her location.”
Once the phone was powered down, her family lost the ability to track her location.
Transferred To Wisconsin Before Release
After the Broadview stop, Naqvi was transferred to a detention facility in Dodge County, Wisconsin, roughly 150 miles from Chicago.
She was released early Saturday morning.
According to family members, her phone battery was dead when she was released and she had to hitchhike to a nearby hotel before relatives could pick her up.
Naqvi has not publicly spoken about the incident and was described by family members as shaken after the experience.
If She Was Detained, Why?
At this point, the exact reason Naqvi was detained remains unclear.
Her attorney says federal officials only cited a “curious travel history” as the reason for the extended questioning and detention, though it appears that several elements may have triggered additional scrutiny, including:
- Travel with a mixed group of U.S. citizens and green-card holders holding Pakistani passports
- A disrupted itinerary involving a failed transit through Istanbul (for whatever reason, travel via Istanbul seems to raise red flags, like the dreaded SSSS on boarding passes)
- Subsequent travel through multiple European countries before returning to the United States
- A return itinerary that differed from the group’s original booking
Whether those factors alone were sufficient to justify a detention lasting nearly two days remains unclear (and unlikely) unless there is more to the story that authorities have not disclosed.
DHS has refused to comment.
CONCLUSION
Sunny Naqvi, a U.S. citizen born and raised in the Chicago area, is now back home in the Chicago suburbs after purportedly being held for roughly 43 hours by federal authorities following her arrival at O’Hare.
Officials have not publicly explained what specifically triggered the detention beyond citing her “curious travel history.”
For now, the case raises more questions than answers about how and why a U.S. citizen could be detained for nearly two days after landing at one of the country’s busiest airports. DHS owes Naqvi and the American public an explanation…
image: LinkedIN
The lack of due process and loss of the right of habeus corpus is chilling. We have an administration that has proven time and again they don’t believe they need to follow the rule of law established by democratic processes. We are no longer a country governed by laws in this administration that has strong fascist tendencies.
Well said, Jeff. And if “curious travel history” is all it takes to suspend our rights as citizens, then many in this community, Matt included, are gonna be harmed, simply when returning from a trip to, say, review Aero Dili in Timor-Leste… I mean, after all, who in their right mind would do such a thing! *wink*
@Jeff – I agree that the case appears to be an outrageous infringement of her rights (at least with the information we currently have) but it is silly to make this a Trump issue. DHS, particularly at the border, has been trampling on the 4th Amendment ever since 9/11, with no meaningful changes under Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden or Trump 2.0. Sadly, the courts have give ridiculous latitude to border agents as if US Citizens shouldn’t have any rights when they travel internationally. This should be an issue that could unite many lawmakers across the political divide, but Congress is far too broken to accomplish anything at this point.
Doug is right that this has been a long-term problem and should be a point of unity across the political spectrum. I do think Jeff is right that the Trump administration has emboldened DHS thugs to be even more brazen.
Doug, I agree that the expansion of border authority long predates any single administration and has received broad judicial deference since 9/11. That continuity is precisely the problem. When constitutional protections erode incrementally across administrations, it does not make the practice neutral — it makes the need for legislative and judicial correction more urgent. If this is a bipartisan failure, then it should invite bipartisan reform rather than resignation.
the administration owes the american people an explanation. Where is the due process, where is the right to an attorney, this is criminal behavior on their part, not that they care.
This story isn’t getting enough attention and I sure hope there’s more to it than what is publicly known thus far – please keep following up on this one. While CBP can hold uncooperative or high-risk USCs for a pretty long period of time within the airport (the worst I’ve seen prior to this is about 12 hours), I always thought that the only place that a USC could be transported without an arrest warrant before fully clearing customs would be a hospital for medical evaluation. I guess I could maybe see CBP’s conduct as repugnant but barely lawful if they were actively interviewing her for the full period of detention and maybe they felt that transfer off-airport was necessary to allow her to rest before completing another day of interviews, but in this case it sounds like there was no further follow-up once transferred to ICE. And, why didn’t they transport her back to the airport FIS area to at least collect her baggage and facilitate onward travel? There’s been no indication that she was unreasonably uncooperative with the inspection (not that it should matter from a legal standpoint), and the fact that she wasn’t stopped from boarding the flight and that her phone traveled with her to the detention facility (rather than to a facility for forensic analysis) suggests a lack of probable cause for an arrest.
Hopefully, DHS will claim that this was an exceptionally inept administrative error and offer a settlement, because claiming the right to hold returning USCs outside the port of entry for an indeterminate amount of time post-inspection would put us in a pretty dire place with respect to civil rights.
12 hours is nothing. The former US Customs service held a traveler for almost 30 days for a monitored bowel movement after they refused surgical intervention to remove numerous balloons of drugs they had swallowed. The courts upheld the detention.
People need to stop thinking a warrant is needed for anything. That 100 per cent false, especially at the border or the “functional equivilent” of the border. Since 1789 the United States has allowed searches without probable cause or even a hunch. You can be searched just because they want to.
Same for arrests. Warrants are not needed if a felony has been committed in the presence of a Federal agent. Arrests are not required to take someone for medical evaluation or interrogation as they transit the border. Again, this has been the law at the border since 1789 or 237 years. It’s no different than your state or local police. While an arrest on the spot is not the preferred method, mainly because it starts the “Rocket Docket “ process with time constraints , it’s better to get a grand jury indictment and an arrest warrant after the process has run, but it’s not necessary.
As for not taking her back to the airport, all I can say is it wouldn’t have happened on my watch.
And we need to correct this kind of allowance given government agents so it can’t happen like that or this to US citizens.
The case you are referencing is United States v. Montoya de Hernandez, 473 U.S. 531 (1985), and it involved specific, articulable reasonable suspicion that the traveler was internally smuggling narcotics. The Supreme Court upheld the detention on that narrow basis. That is not the same as saying agents may detain a citizen for an extended period without particularized justification. It is true that routine border searches require no warrant and that border authority is broad. It is not true that it is unlimited. Non routine intrusions and prolonged detentions must still be reasonable under the Fourth Amendment, and executive action remains subject to judicial review. The relevant question is whether there was individualized reasonable suspicion sufficient to justify a 43 hour detention and interstate transfer of a citizen. If there was, it can withstand scrutiny. If there was not, historical practice does not cure the constitutional defect.
Among other things, the complete lack of basic human care is such an indictment of everything DHS does now. Let’s assume for a moment there was something substantive causing the hold on this woman- which feels extremely unlikely to clear that bar for a US citizen, but let’s assume. Then 2 days later you determine she is free to go, but you don’t let her call anyone, charge her phone, or take her to a bus or train station? Reminds me of the blind man they dropped off miles from his home, who died likely of exposure in Buffalo. Apparently they dropped him off less than a mile from his home. It’s hard to imagine doing this to someone with that sort of disability.
https://apnews.com/article/buffalo-new-york-refugee-death-b2d29a7bdfaa0ffd99d4c6ba7e85e8a6
The fact they “released” her in a city different from where she arrived and provided no means for her return to Chicago tells you everything you need to know. They do not care and can do anything they want to whomever they choose.
Click bait for the “they are detaining Americans for no good reason” mob.
We all know damn well there was a good reason, and no we aren’t owed an explanation over something they have reason to believe was a national security risk. They aren’t doing this out of spite.
International espionage is very possibly involved here, even if she is a pawn in the game.
Kyle, did you notice she’s pretty, though? I think that kinda changes things, no?
I have no doubt that some customs and immigration officials target “attractive” women traveling alone in order to try to spend more time with them or send them to their buddies to hit on or harass more if they don’t respond “nicely” to “why don’t you smile?!?!?” kind of talk. I have noticed this kind of thing at ports of entry in Anglophone countries’ ports of entry but also when their intra-buddy communications have come to my attention.
YES Kyle, we are owned an explanation because she was an American citizen and Americans should not be locked up and transported to detention facilities without being charged.
Bootlicker. Hopefully this happens to you.
An average of 295,000 Americans travel internationally daily based on annual averages. And we get this ONE person for you to use as an example of all this abuse by a government most of you liberals disagree with.
You refuse to acknowledge there is something suspicious here. One of you even suggested she was picked out because of her looks.
The odds EVERY administration has done this for valid reasons occasionally doesn’t enter your mind.
TDS is real and the far left, like it seems most here are, prove it daily with your constant failing for conspiracy theories. Most of you would believe 9/11 was an inside job if it happened under Trump.
I truly hope most of you aren’t breeding and raising children with your hatred of our democratic electoral process.
“hatred of our democratic electoral process.”
Who’s the guy who still insists 2020 was a stolen election?
What cognitive dissonance you have. It’s not TDS. Watch this:
That Real Time editorial was spot on!
Anyone who constantly dismisses the slightest criticism of their leader as some sort of mental illness is clearly a cult member.
Agreed! I thought it was very well-done.
You Kyle are scum.
Even if they had reason to detain her, what was the reason for dropping her off in wisconsin?
LOL….’hatred of our democratic electoral process’? Huh? All you people understand is deflect and divert……never explain.
Who’s showing hatred of our democratic electoral process “Kyle’? Who’s directing their cabinet members to confiscate ballots and voting machines for an election they lost over 5 years ago? What president is claiming he won’t sing any bills into law until the Congress approves a piece of legislation that clearly violates the US Constitution?
It’s called projection ‘Kyle’, and the people squealing that others have TDS are the very ones who have it themselves. You are wrong and you know it which is exactly why you claim everyone else is. Trump plays this game every day and for about 35% of the country it works. But not for those with brains, nor with the courts.
Can you explain what part of this is suspicious enough to warrant a 2 day detention? I could even understand some questioning, but once you establish that she was traveling for work and she is a US citizen, what’s the suspicious part? Address this objectively and specifically, I’m not interested in your general thoughts about liberals.
Kyle, old boy, you are to the Trump adminstration what Tim Dunn is to Delta, except Tim occasionally scores a salient point or two.
A US Citizen should never be treated like this. It is time That Trump is removed by any legal means nessaarry
International espionage as likely as you having a gerbil climb up your backside and out of your mouth while you’re talking filth.
Kyle, we do not know that there was a “good reason,” and constitutional government does not operate on blind trust. Detaining a U.S. citizen for 43 hours without charges or a meaningful explanation—even at the border—implicates the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable seizures, the Fifth Amendment’s guarantees of due process and equal protection, the Suspension Clause’s protection of habeas corpus, the fundamental right of a citizen to re-enter the United States, and longstanding Supreme Court precedent limiting unchecked executive detention, including when national security is invoked.
Because fascism.
Fear, intimidation and cruelty is intentional and part of their playbook.
It’s time to start buying guns and to learn how to use them, and how to make a Molotov cocktail.
Isn’t that War Criminal Trump’s solution to crime? More guns make everyone safer?
I guess another school shooting won’t really change anything given the safety record of guns in the US.
So now in the land of War Criminal Trump, even citzens can’t cross their own border without risk of detention. You’ll soon have to apply for exit visas to stop you all leaving.
We don’t know the details. You might not like it, but I’m sure their is a good reason. She can sue and win if they were being nefarious or lose if it was on hers. It’s not always Tumps fault!
On what grounds? Why wasn’t she charged with anything?
What if she was tracked to traveling to Peshawar, Pakistan where there is no SAP presence and then to Jalalabad but refused to answer the purpose of her visit to Jalalabad, Afghanistan? Is that cause for detention?
No, it’s not cause for extended detention. It’s not a crime to visit Pakistan and DHS thugs should not be allowed to engage in a fishing expedition without probable cause.
Like it or not they ARE authorized to conduct a “fishing expedition” if they have reasonable concerns or doubts. Those are the laws that have been in effect for many years. Now I’m not against changing them but don’t act all self righteous when the exact same thing has happened under multiple administrations for years. Also, we will never know exactly what triggered the hold. BTW, if a border patrol agent asks you questions you are obligated to cooperate.
You are quite correct that fishing expeditions are allowed and if Congress could do one thing, I’d want to put an end to it. But your charge of acting “self righteous” is odd when I’ve made clear that this sort of thing is not limited to the Trump regime…
There are SAP implementation consultants who do have work all over Pakistan — including in Peshawar.
To be a SAP consultant doesn’t require being an employee of SAP. And SAP consultants can work from anywhere that a host country allows. She likely has family in Pakistan and is a US-Pakistani dual-national.
Were the others in the traveling party detained as well ? And why was her phone turned off ? To keep family from knowing her location? Very troubling. Note to self, hide an airtag in my border crossing shoes
She grew up in Evanston. She’s a spoiled rich Republican bitch. Glad she got a good, hard dose of reality.
Wow…
Evanston voted 91 percent for Kamala.
O’Hare… but, but… she… pretty.
Evanston is one of the best places to live in the USA IMHO.It has always been a cross section of races,ethnicities, lifestyles,income levels,boasts Northwestern U,lovely homes and tree lined streets,beautiful lakefront parks,vibrant downtown,good transportation links.I find the snobs begin around Kenilworth/Winnetka(not a whole lotta diversity there).
I sort of agree with Derek and Kyle on this, we don’t know all the facts. And honestly, we don’t have a right to know as it’s her life. It could be nothing, but odds are there was something.
There are few US citizens who have a worse “travel history” than me, almost visiting all level 4s (minus Venezuela) pretty much every month. They pull me over everytime, no issues. Just be honest, say why you went, and after an hour or so they let you through.
If your reasons are invalid then there are grounds to be detained. Say she lied to an immigration officer, that is grounds to be detained, whether one believes it or not. Even a small lie (immigration fraud) could result in years in prison technically. Just saying. Maybe what she did, she could have been charged, but they decided to let her off.
I also agree Matthew that some stuff have been over the top recently, but I highly doubt we have all the facts here.
Again… what could possibly be the justification for leaving her stranded in Wisconsin?
It is true that we do not know all the facts, and no one is entitled to the private details of her life. But the Constitution does not depend on speculation that there “must have been something.” If she committed a crime such as lying to an officer, the government has the authority to charge her. If it chose not to, the question becomes whether a 43 hour detention without charges was supported by lawful, individualized suspicion. Personal anecdotes about smooth secondary inspections do not resolve that issue. The standard is not whether agents often act reasonably. It is whether they did so here within constitutional limits.
Expect to see more instances of detentions like this as ICE/DHS/CBP use predictive AI algorithms on all of our travel patterns to discern suspicious behavior. There have been instances where people have been detained, their personal property and money confiscated, and ultimately released without charges (and without returning their property) using predictive AI. This is particularly true in border regions where hidden license plate readers are feeding data to AI.
Source?
I just wonder how the bootlickers in the comments would feel if this happened to them?
A citizen of the US should NEVER EVER EVER EVER be locked up in an immigration detention facility, be subject to an ICE detainer, or be placed in removal proceedings. There is ABSOLUTELY NO CIRCUMSTANCE in which the law allows a citizen to be subjected to these.
This certainly sounds very wrong, and I want explanations. Yes, this should never happen to a US citizen. But, were they questioning if she was a non-citizen using her passport? Did they just release her in Wisconsin? Or, did they tell her she could leave immediately or wait as they arranged transport back to ORD and she requested the former? I make no excuses; I’m curious. If the actual story is as presented, I’d want to see heads roll.
All fair questions.
This wouldn’t be the first time an ORD-origin DHS detainee at that jail was dumped outside and told to make their own way with or without a phone call first.
Innocent until proven guilty, eh?
So this is where we are as a country, where citizens can be held for unreasonable periods without being charged with a crime, then dumped in the middle of BFE with a dead phone to walk to wherever they can go? That’s banana republic police state behavior and completely unacceptable. I dearly hope she sues.
I don’t understand when people try to compare ICE to the Gestapo, it’s ridiculous!
No Gestapo agent ever wore a mask to cover their face.
Some of us here are like ground zero of “irregular travel history”, but it’s not legitimate grounds for the government to disappear a recognized US citizen with prima facie evidence of US citizenship and US identity — which is what a valid US passport is.
I have only extremely rarely been subject to any sort of secondary at US airports of entry — and nearly all of those were based on my answers to customs questions or because I was bringing in unrelated first-time visiting minors who had no family history of visiting the US. Under the current regime where I no longer am able to have a presumption of regularity when dealing with DHS or DOJ even for recognized US citizens, I have put a halt on inviting foreign national minors to learn about the US and appreciate what we are/were about as a country and a people.
Apparently, she was referred for secondary screening and it took her no more than 90 minutes to clear immigration. She also has a history of making false accusations and has a criminal record because of it. Since her story was completely unbelievable, I’m not surprised to hear this.
You’re presenting specific factual claims about a 90-minute release and an alleged criminal history. Public reporting reflects a dispute between DHS and her family about the duration of the detention, but it does not document any criminal record or history of false accusations. On what source are you relying for those additional assertions?
Chicago Tribune for it being false and her history of filing false police reports. DHS for the 90 minutes.
Her ex-boyfriend made some kind of claim about her threatening him with a knife to make him delete sexual PII info about her from Reddit, but the ex-bf’s claim was full of holes and so many inconsistencies that made the claim useless for seeking a guilty verdict in a court of law.
She claimed a UI professor sexually harassed her, but the school dismissed the claim for lack of evidence. But I wouldn’t make much of such school incident since most girls and women sexually harassed by professors at colleges don’t have evidence of the sexual harassment unless they do a little sting operation of their own to try to nab the person abusing a position of privilege and authority over the student — most targets of sexual harassment make no such sting effort.
I think you need to make an update here because you stated that the company she works for is SAP.
Well, if you check comments under @Veronicadelacruztv’s Instagram post here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVpxI1bDcZu/?igsh=ZWNwa2RjanpjMmJl, you’ll see that the company has commented stating, “ We have reviewed this and can confirm that this individual is not an SAP employee.”
This means there was no work trip and the whole thing is a bunch of BS from the start.
We will be following up on this tomorrow.
it was clear to anyone without TDS that this was all crap from the start. 43 hours – BS
Dodge’s detention facility has previously been told to hold some federal detainees incommunicado and deny that federal investigation targets were ever in custody. This kind of things is really not new in the country — in the days after 9/11, similar temporary disappearances happened and some jails would deny they ever held persons of interest for federal investigation purposes and then those disappeared people would come out knowing some facts about the jails that they almost certainly wouldn’t have otherwise easily known unless detained.
Can’t wait to see what happens when I am
Asked why I went to Japan, Taiwan, Cambodia and HKG for a week and tell them because of Alaska airlines mileage ticket fare sale… LOL