Two people accused of being part of a plot to plant bombs at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida were born to illegal immigrants in the U.S., making them birthright citizenship babies, the Department of Homeland Security said.
Alen Zheng is accused of trying to damage government property with a destructive device, and his sister Ann Mary Zheng is charged with being an accessory after the fact, stemming from a bomb plot last month.
They are American citizens by dint of their birth on U.S. soil to parents who have been living in the U.S. illegally for decades, DHS said.
The parents, Qiu Qin Zou and Jia Zhang Zheng, sneaked into the U.S. at some point and in 1993 requested asylum, but it was denied. They were ordered deported in 1998 but never left, despite multiple failed attempts to reopen their case.
After the bomb plot, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took custody of the parents.
The bomb was apparently planted on March 10 in an attempt to damage or destroy the base’s visitor center. The device wasn’t discovered until March 16.
SEE ALSO: Two people charged with attempted bombing near CENTCOM headquarters
The siblings flew to China on March 12.
Ann Mary Zheng was then arrested last month upon returning from China. Her brother is believed to still be in China. Prosecutors said they were attempting to secure his return.
Ms. Zheng is being represented by the public defender’s office, which declined to comment.
DHS sought to make an example of the case, just two days after the Supreme Court held oral arguments on the legality and constitutionality of President Trump’s executive order attempting to deny recognition of citizenship to babies born in the same situation as the Zhengs.
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“Automatically granting citizenship to children of illegal aliens born in the U.S. is based on a historically inaccurate interpretation of the Citizenship Clause and poses a major national security risk,” said Lauren Bis, a department spokeswoman. “That reality became apparent last week when two U.S.-born children of Chinese illegal aliens were indicted for planting a potentially deadly explosive device outside MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.”
At the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Solicitor General D. John Sauer, told the justices that hundreds of Chinese firms operate to facilitate “birth tourism,” arranging for Chinese mothers to be on U.S. soil when their babies are born.
Under the current interpretation of the Constitution and the law, those babies have automatic citizenship.
Similar industries exist for Russians.
Unlike the Zheng family, the Chinese and Russian mothers often return home, raising their children with U.S. citizenship in foreign lands.
“Uncounted thousands of foreigners from potentially hostile nations have flocked to give birth in the United States in recent decades, creating a whole generation of American citizens abroad with no meaningful ties to the United States,” Mr. Sauer told the justices.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. questioned what they had to do with the legal issues before the high court, saying the framers who crafted the 14th Amendment and the birthright citizenship clause didn’t have that issue in mind.
“It’s a new world. It’s the same Constitution,” he said.
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