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You have to be a citizen to work for the federal government, with a few exceptions that I don’t think CBP falls under. So the answer is, they aren’t.

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The very first job listing I found refutes this: https://www.usajobs.gov/job/882256600

Open to "U.S. Citizens, Nationals, or those who owe allegiance to the U.S."

US nationals are a tiny corner case that applies to people born in certain US territories. They’re functionally equivalent to citizens aside from not having the right to vote in federal elections.

As far as I can tell, “those who owe allegiance to the US” doesn’t include anyone beyond citizens and nationals and is just there as boilerplate.

That's what I assumed, and found strange that the referenced article refers to him as a Chinese national. That said, that publication is also probably not very credible because I can't find anything backing up that claim.

I’d guess they’re saying that based on his place of birth and missed him becoming a US citizen sometime afterwards.

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