Illegal immigrant parents of anchor baby siblings charged in MacDill bomb plot arrested by ICE

The Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday that it has arrested the illegal immigrant parents of Ann Mary and Alen Zheng, the two siblings indicted on charges related to the placement of an explosive device at Florida’s MacDill Air Force Base.

The DHS said that the two siblings were granted US citizenship after they were born on US soil by illegal immigrant parents. On March 18, the parents, Qiu Qin Zou and Jia Zhang Zheng, were taken into ICE custody. The department said they entered the US illegally "at an unknown place" from China.

The parents applied for asylum in 1993, but it was denied by an immigration judge, who ordered them removed from the US in 1998. They attempted multiple times over the years to reopen their case, but the Bureau of Immigration Appeals denied those attempts. Despite being ordered removed nearly 30 years ago, the couple remained in the United States illegally.

Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement, "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. 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. This incident underscores the severe national security threat that illegal immigration and birth right citizenship pose to the United States."

Alen Zheng, who remains in China after fleeing the US, has indicted on charges of attempted damage to government property by fire or explosion, unlawful making of a destructive device, and possession of an unregistered destructive device. He is accused of placing an explosive device at MacDill, which is home to US Central Command, on March 10. The device was not discovered until March 16 but was recovered undetonated.

Ann Mary Zheng has been charged with accessory after the fact and tampering with evidence. Both Zheng siblings left the United States for China on March 12, and Ann Mary Zheng returned to the US on March 17, where she was taken into custody.