NYPD Officer Arrested For Spying For China. Naturalization provided him with the ‘keys to the kingdom.’

On February 21, 2020 the Department of Justice issued a press release, New York City Police Department Officer Charged with Acting As an Illegal Agent of the People’s Republic of China.  That press release went on to report, The Defendant Reported to Officials with the PRC Consulate About the Activities of Chinese Citizens in the New York Area and Assessed Potential Intelligence Sources for the PRC Within the Tibetan Community in New York and Elsewhere.

The Justice Department press release also provided the Complaint And Affidavit In Support Of Arrest Warrant pertaining to the defendant in this case, Baimadajie Angwang, a member of the New York City Police Department who is also a member of U.S. Army Reserves.

Not unlike an onion that has numerous layers, we will peel the layers off of this report to help illustrate how alleged and apparent failures of the immigration system go to the foundation of all that which is alleged to have occurred.

The reason that I am referencing failures of the immigration system is because, to begin with, the defendant in this case is a naturalized United States citizen who apparently committed serial immigration fraud.  U.S. citizenship was a prerequisite for his becoming of member of the NYPD.

The New York Times news report, N.Y.P.D. Officer Is Accused of Spying on Tibetans for China was also published on September 21, 2020 and provided additional details about NYPD Officer Angwang and how he entered the United States and ultimately became a United States citizen in this excerpt from that New York Times report:

Mr. Angwang first traveled from China to the United States on a cultural exchange visa, the complaint said. He later sought asylum, claiming that he had been arrested and tortured in mainland China because of his Tibetan ethnicity.

But prosecutors suggested in a court filing that Mr. Angwang secured his American citizenship under false pretenses, noting that he had traveled back to China after being granted asylum.

“These are not the actions of an individual who fears torture or persecution,” prosecutors wrote, arguing against bail. Mr. Angwang’s parents and brother still live in mainland China. His parents are members of the Communist Party, and his father is a retired member of the Chinese military, the complaint said.

The New York Times report also noted:

He also is accused of inviting a Chinese official to N.Y.P.D. events, offering potential access to senior police officials, prosecutors said.

The allegations raised serious questions about how much visibility Chinese government officials had inside the country’s largest police department and about the extent of Chinese efforts to conduct covert surveillance of Tibetan Americans.

It is particularly egregious that Angwang is alleged to have sought to legally enter the United States under the auspices of a cultural exchange program and then reported applied for political asylum supposedly seeking the protection of the United States.

The fact Mr. Angwang he had returned to China after having been granted asylum should have set off alarm bells, but apparently no action was taken.

We saw a similar situation with the Tsarnaev brothers who carried out the deadly terror attack at the Boston Marathon in 2013.  They had previously voluntarily traveled back to their native Russia after they filed for and were granted political asylum.

There is an obvious lack of resources dedicated to the effective enforcement of our immigration laws. to track the movements of such individuals.

There is also an apparent lack of resources available to do effective background investigations for immigration benefits and for the granting of security clearances.

These deficiencies create vulnerabilities that can and have been exploited repeatedly by foreign terrorists and spies alike.

Having succeeded in this strategy Angwang then, allegedly, obtained United States citizenship to acquire security clearances in both the U.S. military and the NYPD to provide him with opportunities to not only betray his adopted country but his former countrymen and women by spying on them all the while appearing in the camouflage of a police officer’s uniform, officially accorded him by the NYPD, the position of ultimate trust within local communities.

Ironically, he was, in fact, assigned as the community affairs officer in the 111th precinct in Queens, New York.

You have to wonder how many Tibetan-Americans, allegedly identified by Angwang, who were pressured in the United States, by the Chinese government who could have threatened harm to their family members back home.

Additionally, Angwang was also given a Secret Clearance by the U.S. Army as the alleged consequence of his having successfully concealed his covert work with the Chinese government in the United States.

Stop and consider what we must consider- if true, Mr. Angwang was able to game a variety of official government vetting processes to obtain a visa to enter the United States, to be able to game the asylum process- and thus to ultimately be eligible to apply for and receive United States citizenship through the naturalization process.

Thus far there is no mention of any effort to prosecute him for committing immigration fraud.  However, if found guilty of the crimes for which he is accused, he could and should be charged with immigration fraud.  This would set the stage for stripping him of his U.S. citizenship and leave him vulnerable to being removed (deported) back to his native China.

He is being charged with lying in his application for security clearances and could, likely, be prosecuted by local prosecutors if he lied in his application to become a member of the NYPD.  However, given the infuriating “Sanctuary” policies of New York City, I am not holding my breath about this possibility.

In this case such local prosecution would be redundant, in any event.

Immigration fraud is a major vulnerability that was identified by the 9/11 Commission, to which I provided testimony, as having played a major role in the ability of many international terrorists to enter the United States and embed themselves, concealing their deadly preparations.

In point of fact, some time ago I wrote an extensive article on this very issue, Immigration Fraud: Lies That Kill – 9/11 Commission identified immigration fraud as a key embedding tactic of terrorists.

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