Wisconsin officials to address claims from Illinois woman that she was detained by ICE for 48 hours

Caroline Kubzansky, Talia Soglin and Alice Yin, Chicago Tribune on Apr 9, 2026

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CHICAGO — Wisconsin law enforcement officials are set to release new information about a Skokie, Illinois, woman’s claims last month that U.S. immigration officials detained her for nearly 48 hours and in multiple states, the Dodge County sheriff’s office announced Thursday.

Dodge County, Wisconsin, is one of three places where supporters of Summer Sundas “Sunny” Naqvi said Naqvi had been held over a roughly two-day period beginning March 5 after she had landed at O’Hare International Airport after an alleged work trip. Her purported employer and multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office, disputed those claims to the Chicago Tribune.

Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt said in a news release that the conference, scheduled for Friday afternoon, will “address recent public claims regarding an alleged detention incident and the reported involvement of multiple law enforcement agencies.” The release did not state whether officials planned to take formal action, but said that it would include an “in-depth overview of the matter.”

Naqvi’s family and supporters, including Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison, originally claimed that Naqvi, whom Cook County records show was born in Evanston, had been held for about 30 hours after she landed at O’Hare. They said she was then transferred to a notorious immigration processing center in west suburban Broadview, and then to the Dodge County jail in Wisconsin, which frequently houses Chicago-area detainees. They said Naqvi, 28, was released from the jail in the early hours of March 7, when she then hitchhiked to a hotel in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin where she had her family pick her up.

But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security denied her version of events, saying Naqvi had only been directed through additional security screening upon arriving at the Chicago airport, and later releasing two still images to bolster their account of her interaction with O’Hare immigration in a so-called secondary inspection room.

The Dodge County sheriff’s office said there was no indication of her being detained at their facilities, and a spokesman from the Cook County sheriff’s office said deputies searched the Broadview processing center for Naqvi the day she claimed she was held there, but did not find her or her luggage.

Her supporters had said that Naqvi had been traveling on a work trip for a German software company, but a German software company once listed on Naqvi’s LinkedIn page told the Tribune she had never been employed there, nor had any of its employees been detained at O’Hare.

Reached for comment on Thursday, Morrison, a family friend, said he was not aware of the upcoming announcement and “would be interested in seeing what they put out.” Her sister, Sarah Afzal, declined to comment.

Numerous U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents have been caught in the federal snare since the Trump administration began to crack down on immigrants after coming into office last year. In September, the administration launched Operation Midway Blitz in the Chicago area, a sweeping arrest campaign targeting immigrants without legal status.

While U.S. citizens and other permanent residents in Chicago have been questioned and briefly detained by federal agents, the Tribune has not reviewed any cases of citizens who claimed they had been being transferred to detention facilities out of state prior to Naqvi’s case.

In a March 9 news release, Schmidt asked Naqvi to get in touch so they could probe the alleged detention. The sheriff’s office had no record of her contact information “because no booking ever took place.”

“We are also asking that the unknown individual who reportedly picked (Naqvi) up in the Juneau area and drove her to the Holiday Inn contact the Sheriff’s Office to provide a statement,” the release read.

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