A U.S. Citizen Was Detained for 40 Hours After Returning From a Work Trip. Her Family Says It Was Racial Profiling.

By Nick Valencia | March 8, 2026

CHICAGO— Late Thursday night at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, six tech workers returning from a work trip abroad stepped off their flight expecting the familiar ritual of customs lines, passport stamps, and the relief of being home.

Instead, they were taken into custody.

Among them was Sundas Naqvi, a 28-year-old American citizen born in the United States. Her friend and family call her “Sunny.” According to her family, Naqvi was detained by Customs and Border Protection officers for roughly 40 hours after agents flagged the group’s recent travel history, a trip that included stops in Turkey, Bulgaria, and Austria.

The group consisted of six coworkers traveling together. Three carried Pakistani passports. The others were U.S. citizens. All of them were South Asian, Naqvi‘s sister Sarah Afzal, told NVN.

“They’re not a threat to society,” Afzal said. “It really hit home that this is actually happening.”

The detentions come amid repeated claims from the Trump administration that immigration enforcement is targeting “the worst of the worst,” criminals and public safety threats. But cases involving U.S. citizens continue to surface.

For Afzal and her family, the experience felt painfully familiar.

“We went through 9/11 and I remember all the racism then,” she said. “Ever since then we experienced so much more racism as brown people, as a Muslim family.”

Naqvi has declined to speak publicly ahead of a press conference scheduled for later today in Chicago. Her sister says that decision is intentional.

“She doesn’t really want to make this about her. It’s about the bigger picture. There could be people detained right now illegally.”

A Detention That Spanned Two States

Naqvi was first held for hours at Chicago’s O’Hare airport before being transferred to a federal detention facility. Her phone, Afzal said, showed her location pinging at the Broadview processing center outside Chicago.

“Her phone was pinging from Broadview. She was there for about three, four hours,” Afzal said.

Federal officials had initially told family members and others that Naqvi had not been held at Broadview, a claim Afzal rejects.

“They were lying to our faces,” she said.

From there, Naqvi was transported across state lines to the Dodge Detention Facility in Juneau, Wisconsin, where she remained until she was released early Saturday morning. The Department of Homeland Security has not publicly explained why Naqvi a U.S. citizen was transferred to a detention facility in another state.

Additionally, Naqvi‘s American passport was confiscated and has not yet been returned.

Cooperation Didn’t Help

What makes the case particularly difficult for the family to process is that Naqvi tried to cooperate. Afzal says her sister answered agents’ questions and complied with requests, believing honesty would speed her release.

“There was no language barrier. She was cooperating the whole time. She just wanted to cooperate and go home. She was tired. She’d been there almost 30 hours,” Afzal said.

But cooperation didn’t prevent the detention. Afzal said the experience left her sister shaken.

“She realized it doesn’t matter what your status is. Anyone can basically be kidnapped.”

Afzal immigrated to the United States from Pakistan as an infant and later became a U.S. citizen.

Growing up Muslim and South Asian in America after the attacks of September 11 left a lasting imprint. Even names could feel like a vulnerability.

“My name’s very American: Sarah,” she said. “My sister’s name is Sundas, and she didn’t like that growing up.”

Now, more than two decades later, the family fears the same cycle of suspicion may be returning. They believe the broader geopolitical climate, including the U.S. being at war with Iran, may have influenced how authorities perceived the group.

“I definitely think that had to do with it,” she said.

Pakistan is in South Asia, not the Middle East. But history has shown that distinctions like that often collapse in moments of fear or conflict. After 9/11, Sikhs, Arabs, South Asians, and Muslims across many ethnicities reported being targeted in similar waves of suspicion.

“She’s One of the Brightest Minds”

To Afzal, the tragedy of the moment is that the public is meeting her sister not through her accomplishments, but through a detention story.

Naqvi built her career in tech. After graduating from college, Afzal said, she worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where she began in accounting before transitioning into technology. Last year she joined SAP, the German global software company, where she now works as a senior solutions architect.

“She’s a really smart young woman. Very capable, intelligent, and a great communicator,” Afzal said.

That makes the circumstances of her detention harder to understand.

Naqvi was ultimately released after family members, elected officials, and community advocates began pressing authorities for answers.

Afzal says the family knows they were fortunate.

“She just feels lucky she had the level of support to get out,” she said.

Others detained alongside her have remained quiet, afraid speaking publicly could draw scrutiny to their immigration status.

“They’re terrified if they say anything what’s going to happen to them.”

Naqvi herself still feels uneasy about traveling again. Without her passport returned, Afzal says, her sister worries the same thing could happen again.

“This Is Not What My Family Came Here For”

For Naqvi‘s family, the story is not simply about what happened to her. It’s about what her detention suggests about the moment the country is in.

“This is so un-American,” her sister Afzal said. “My parents came here for the American dream, and that’s not what their kids are experiencing right now. We’re scared.”

Because if a U.S. citizen can be taken into custody at an airport, transferred across state lines, and held for nearly two days without a clear explanation, then the line between immigration enforcement and something else entirely may already be blurring.