ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – On May 31, the New York Times published a story questioning President Donald Trump’s strategy of aggressively targeting suspected Chinese national students as spies, saying that “experts fear it will do more harm than good for American research.”

However, just three days after that article was published, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Michigan announced that two Chinese nationals were arrested and charged with smuggling a “dangerous biological pathogen” into the country. The plan was to work on the fungus called Fusarium graminearum at a University of Michigan laboratory, where one of the Chinese nationals worked.

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“This fungus can cause a disease called ‘head blight,’ a disease of wheat, barley, maize, and rice, causing significant health issues in both humans and livestock. It is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on X.

On May, 28, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out the new Trump plan.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” Rubio said in a statement. “We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.”

One Michigan politician called for more action.

“The CCP is working around the clock to do our country harm,” Sen. Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Township) said on X. “We should not be selling them our farm land as they research how to poison it and we shouldn’t be letting their ‘students’ study here.” Nesbitt is running for governor.