Sunny Naqvi, a 28-year-old U.S. citizen, is now back at home
after her family says she spent about 43 hours in Department of Homeland Security custody.
Customs and Border Patrol officials are now disputing her relatives' claims.
Naqvi was born in Evanston and raised in the Chicago suburbs.
A few weeks ago, she was set to travel overseas on a work trip with five other people. That group included three U.S. citizens and three green card holders, all in the U.S. legally.
The work trip fell through at the last minute, but the group went continued traveling.
On Thursday, Naqvi and her colleagues arrived back in Chicago, where DHS allegedly detained her for what her attorney says was a "curious travel history."
Naqvi's family says she was detained for 30 hours at Chicago O'Hare International Airport before being sent to Broadview.
At some point, the family said, they lost Naqvi's location which was being shared from her phone.
Relatives said federal agents told them that Naqvi was not in custody,
despite her location previously showing her at the Broadview Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
"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.'"
ABC7 saw a large crowd join elected officials on Sunday in front of the Broadview facility, saying this was an unlawful detainment.
"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,"
said Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison.
The family said Naqvi was later sent to a facility in Dodge County, Wisconsin, where she was later released early Saturday morning.
They said her phone was dead, so she had to hitch hike with a person driving nearby to a hotel, where her family was able to pick her up.
"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
https://abc7chicago.com/post/sunny-naqvi-us-citizen-detained-dhs-chicago-ohare-airport-sent-broadview-ice-facility-dodge-county-wi-released/18693499/