Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt provided proof that a US citizen from Illinois was not detained by immigration officials and held in his jail.
Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt on Tuesday flatly denied claims that a U.S. citizen from Illinois was detained by federal immigration authorities and transferred to the county jail, declaring the allegations appear to be a hoax with zero supporting records.
Sundas “Sunny” Naqvi, 28, and her family alleged she was held nearly 30 hours after returning from overseas travel, shuttled from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to a federal facility in Broadview, Ill., then to Dodge County Jail — the state’s only immigration detention site — before being released early Saturday without her passport or phone. Family members claimed they tracked her cellphone to the locations and accused agents of lying about her custody.
Schmidt, however, said jail logs prove otherwise.
“At this time, these allegations do not appear to be accurate,” Schmidt said in a statement. “The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office has no record of the individual referenced ever being booked, detained, or released from the Dodge County Jail. Jail logs confirm that no female inmates or detainees from the federal government were admitted or released during the timeframe in which these events were alleged to have occurred.”
The Department of Homeland Security went further, calling the entire story “blatantly false.” A DHS spokesperson confirmed Naqvi was referred for secondary inspection at O’Hare on March 5 but departed customs within 90 minutes, never taken into custody or transferred to ICE.
With no booking records, no federal transfers and no evidence beyond unverifiable phone pings that the sheriff invited the family to submit for forensic review, the claims collapse under scrutiny. Schmidt urged Naqvi and the supposed Good Samaritan who allegedly drove her to a nearby hotel to come forward with proof — a step unlikely if the tale is fabricated.
The episode echoes a pattern of activist-driven narratives aimed at undermining lawful immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
