Parents of MacDill bomb suspects are illegal immigrants, DHS warns of birthright citizenship dangers

ICE agents took the parents, identified as Qiu Qin Zou and Jia Zhang Zheng, into custody on March 18, days after their son, Alen Zheng, allegedly planted an explosive device outside the base.

Officials said the parents illegally entered the United States and applied for asylum in 1993, but an immigration judge denied those claims and ordered both Zheng and Zou removed from the U.S. in 1998.

The Board of Immigration Appeals denied multiple attempts by the pair to reopen their case, but they remained in the U.S. for decades despite the removal order.

Their children - Alen Zheng and his sister, Ann Mary Zheng - were both born in the U.S. and are citizens.

Prosecutors said Ann Mary Zheng "assisted after the fact" and tampered with evidence to hinder her brother's arrest.

The explosive device, described by officials as potentially "very deadly," failed to detonate and was discovered six days later by an Air Force airman.

Investigators later linked the device to materials recovered from Zheng's home and a burner phone used to place a cryptic 911 call warning about the bomb.

"Automatically granting citizenship to children of illegal aliens born in the U.S. … poses a major national security risk," DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. "This incident underscores the severe national security threat that illegal immigration and birthright citizenship pose to the United States."

The agency noted that the suspects were born in the United States after their parents entered the country illegally.

The policy is being challenged in the Supreme Court, setting up a major legal battle over the scope of the 14th Amendment.

Ann Mary Zheng faces charges of accessory after the fact and evidence tampering, with a potential sentence of up to 30 years.

Officials have not publicly identified a motive or confirmed any connection to the Chinese government.

Fox News' Alex Nitzberg and Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.