National Security and Military Bases

The Department of Homeland Security says the parents of alleged MacDill Air Force Base bomb suspect Alen Zheng are illegal immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for decades despite final deportation orders, and is using the case to argue that birthright citizenship poses national‑security risks as the issue heads to the Supreme Court. ICE took Qiu Qin Zou and Jia Zhang Zheng into custody on March 18; records show they entered the U.S. illegally in 1993, sought asylum, lost in 1998, and repeatedly failed to reopen their case but were never removed. Their U.S.‑born children, Alen and Ann Mary Zheng, are citizens; prosecutors allege Alen planted a potentially “very deadly” improvised explosive device outside MacDill’s visitor center on March 10, fled to China, and that Ann Mary later tampered with evidence and “assisted after the fact” before being arrested upon re‑entry in Detroit. The device never detonated and was discovered March 16, with investigators tying it to materials in Alen’s home and a burner phone used to place a cryptic 911 warning. Acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis issued a politically charged statement claiming that “automatically granting citizenship to children of illegal aliens” is a “major national security risk,” signaling that the administration intends to leverage this foiled attack and the Zheng family’s history to bolster Trump’s contested executive order narrowing birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment.