Kamal Ghorui
Sundas (Sunny) Naqvi, a 28-year-old South Asian-origin US citizen, was detained by the Department of Homeland Security for 43 hours over what her attorney believed was a “curious travel history”. ABC News reported that Sunny Naqvi was born in Evanston and raised in the Chicago suburbs. She was scheduled to travel overseas for a work trip with five other people. The group of six comprised three US citizens, including Sunny and three Green Card holders. All six of them were detained. The trip was canceled after the three Green Card holders, who have Pakistani passports, were turned back during their layover in Istanbul due to visa issues. On Thursday, Naqvi and her colleagues arrived back in Chicago, where DHS suddenly detained her for what her attorney says was a “curious travel history.”
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Naqvi’s family says she was detained for 30 hours at Chicago O’Hare International Airport before being sent to Broadview. The family was checking her phone location and they lost the location when she was taken to an ICE facility. But the agents continued to tell the family members that she was not taken into custody. “The cops were lying to our faces,” said Sarah Afzal, Naqvi’s sister. “We were asking them, ‘Hey, her location is here. We were in contact with her,’ and they kept being like, ‘I don’t know what to tell you.'”“They asked for Sunny’s phone number so they can 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,” said Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison.The family said Naqvi was kept in custody since Thursday and was released early Saturday morning. “It was just really scary to me, and I think it’s really scary to know that this can happen to someone born here,” Afzal said. “This whole morning was about just kind of getting it together. She doesn’t want this to be about her. This is about everyone that is illegally detained.”
