In 2007, Xunmei “Grace” Li came under federal investigation as a possible Chinese spy due to her involvement with Hummingbird Defense Systems. The company was promoted by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to provide facial recognition services for the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center.
Then in early 2014, Li was stripped of her U.S. citizenship in a process known as denaturalization after being convicted in 2009 of immigration fraud. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said at the time that deportation proceedings would be initiated against Li, who came to the United States from China in 1994, received a green card the next year, and simply became a legal U.S. resident after the 2014 ruling.
But Arizona Daily Independent has confirmed Li, now 51, has not been deported. In fact, she was not even placed into removal proceedings until arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in May 2020. And according to ICE spokeswoman Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a federal immigration judge issued Li a bond order on July 25.
“After posting that bond, ICE released her from custody at the Eloy Detention Center and enrolled her in the agency’s Alternatives to Detention program while her case remains pending before the immigration court,” Pitts O’Keefe said, adding there was no further information she could release.
So why is Li still in the United States more than six years later?
The answers might be found in Li’s history in Arizona, starting with her actions in 2007 to recommend Lizhong Fan -a Chinese national- for a computer job with her boyfriend’s company Hummingbird Defense Systems. The company was working on developing a facial recognition program for law enforcement agencies, and had obtained a contract with the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center.
Such facial recognition programs rely on databases of images, especially driver license photos. Which Fan had access to, all 5,000,000 of them in Arizona. As well as millions of pieces of other data including non-public warrants.
A Sudden And Unannounced Departure
When Fan made a sudden and unannounced departure back to his homeland in June 2007, the Department of Homeland Security and FBI officials determined he had taken “computer equipment” with him. Beyond that, not much more is known about how a Chinese computer programmer got approved to work inside an American anti-terrorism agency or what data he took with him.
But Fan’s departure led officials to take a hard look at Li, who was dating Steve Greschner, the head of Hummingbird Defense Systems. It was learned that Li helped Fan land the job in 2007 that gave him access to countless government and law enforcement records.
It was also learned that Li and Greschner traveled in 2006 to China with Arpaio’s chief deputy, David Hendershott. The two men had been friends for a few years, during which time Hendershott helped Hummingbird Defense Systems land a county contract.
Wed To Two Men At The Same Time
And there was Gang Chen, a Chinese emigrant who became Greschner’s business partner shortly after Hummingbird Defense was formed. It was Chen who introduced Greschner to Li, and who with Li ended up basically running Hummingbird’s technical systems.
In the months after Fan returned to China, Greschner’s company went belly up. Chen was charged with immigration fraud and then deported, even though he is listed as the father of Li’s two children. And in 2009, Li was convicted and placed on federal probation for five years for making false statements on her naturalization application, something her attorney said were simple “mistakes” on an immigration form.
Then in 2014 Li lost her naturalized U.S. citizenship, which Judge David Campbell based on the 2009 false statements conviction for being wed to two men at the same time and not telling immigration officials she had two U.S.-born children. The next year Li unexpectedly dropped her appeal, although it is unclear how she has supported herself and her children.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and ICE officials appear to have been uninterested in following through on Li’s deportation. Until last spring.
Pitts O’Keefe declined to say what prompted the May 2020 move by ICE, but court records show Li’s youngest child turned 18 in February 2020. There has also been rising political tensions between the U.S. and China, as well as renewed attention to Chinese espionage due to the personal relationships Chinese national Fang “Christine” Fang has with several men, including an Ohio mayor and Representative Eric Swalwell of California.