Shi took on the F1 visa as a graduate student in agricultural engineering.
On May 7, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed a Chinese citizen convicted of using a drone to photograph a Virginia naval shipyard.
Shi pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors under the Spy Act in July 2024, originally sentenced to six months in prison and was sentenced to one year of supervised release.
In March, Erophyladelphia served him with a notice of removal, and an immigration judge ordered the removal to China.
Students categorized US submarines, sites
Shi joined the country on an F1 visa in August 2021 as a graduate student in agricultural engineering at the University of Minnesota.
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The Navy Shipyard is building nuclear submarines and the next generation of Gerald R. Ford class aircraft carriers.
On the morning of January 6th, 2024, Shi called on residents for help to retrieve the drone. Instead, the resident took a photo of Sea’s ID and called police after showing that Sea was flying a drone above the shipyard. Officials from the Newport News Police Department questioned him, saying federal prosecutors showed that the footage of the bodycam looked “very nervous” and that he didn’t say “the real reason why he flew the drone.”
Court documents noted that three commissioned submarines (USS Boise, USS Columbus and USS Montana) were located at the Newport News Shipyard on the day Sea used the drone.
“Navy aircraft carriers are categorized as a whole carrier, classify sensitive systems and have sensitive systems,” the court documents read. “The nuclear submarines present that day have highly classified and sensitive naval nuclear propulsion information (“nnpi'”), and these submarines are also classified as sensitive even in the design and construction stages. ”
On January 18, 2024, the FBI arrested SHI in San Francisco, where he was preparing to board a one-way flight to China. His visa ended on January 25, 2024, and the University of Minnesota ended its exchange program on February 7, 2025.
He was jailed at the Clinton County Correctional Facility in McElhaltten, Pennsylvania, and arrested in Elophiladelphia, where he was released on March 7th.
In recent years, the number of drones flying in sensitive locations across the United States has been increasing.
Frank Fun and Andrew Thornbrook contributed to this report.
