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Diplomat arrested under minimum wage / visa law

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softwareNerd

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A recent New York arrest has caused quite a stir in India. The background is this:

 

  • Indian diplomats often have domestic servants working for them, who are from India
  • In India, it is quite routine for upper-income people to have servants, drivers, etc.
  • Diplomats in the U.S. are supposed to pay such domestics minimum wage. Instead, they often draw up a contract at minimum wage, and submit it along with the visa application for the domestic, but actually pay about $500 a month (plus the servant stays with them -- so, room and board are provided). 
  • In the past, Indian diplomats have been charged with cruelty toward their domestic servants, but that does not seem to be the case here.
  • Still, under U.S. law, they're committing 2 crimes; breaking the minimum wage law, and making a false statement on a visa application
  • Sometimes domestics will sue or complain, which is what happened in this case
  • So, the authorities arrested the diplomat

If that had been all, the issue would have been a medium-story in India, as were a couple of previous such cases.

 

This time, however, after arresting the diplomat in public -- as opposed to asking her to come surrender herself, or going to her home -- she was treated under what the state department calls standard "intake procedures". The Indian media are reporting that she was strip searched and kept for some hours with other women who were prostitutes and drug-addicts! The strip-search part is pretty alien to any Indian.

 

Story from a reputable Indian newspaper here.

 

India has reacted by downgrading the ID-cards of many U.S. diplomats in India, temporarily blocking the duty-free imports of liquor for the U.S. embassy, and removing the special security barricades around the U.S. Embassy (this last is pretty short-sighted, unless it is mostly symbolic). Some more extreme reactions have called for official harassment of U.S. diplomats. 

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Human trafficking appears to be the go-to prosecution to avoid diplomatic immunity.  It's this kind of legal fudging that encourages political tit-for-tat.

Early reports often don't tell the whole story. Right now, there aren't any allegations of beatings/imprisonment of the servant, but let's see what details come out.

Along the way, it seems that the diplomat upped the ante by putting pressure on the servant's family in India. The cops there hauled in the servant's husband and her son and harassed them. Perhaps this led the U.S. officials to get tough too. It would seem so, based on the fact that this case has been going on since June, and the servant's husband and son were given visas and arrived in the U.S. just days before the diplomat's arrest.

At root is the stupid immigration laws, and it seems clear the the U.S. state department knew that diplomats fudge the wage-levels, but were willing to ignore that as long as that was the only offence. It isn't clear how much the state department had to do with this, and how much was the work of the ambitious Federal Attorney trying to emulate Guiliani and his perp-walk techniques.

I do hope the U.S. prosecutors have something more that just a lie about wage-levels. If that is all they've got, the whole charade was pretty self-defeating.

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"Khobragade is accused of submitting false documents to obtain a work visa for her female housekeeper, paying her less than the amount stated. It's unclear whether she'll argue that the alleged act would be in the performance of her official duties, rather than personal." ~ http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/18/justice/indian-diplomat-immunity/

 

...
At root is the stupid immigration laws, and it seems clear the the U.S. state department knew that diplomats fudge the wage-levels, but were willing to ignore that as long as that was the only offence. It isn't clear how much the state department had to do with this, and how much was the work of the ambitious Federal Attorney trying to emulate Guiliani and his perp-walk techniques.
...

 

I agree, and the hypocrisy of arresting and strip searching a foreign diplomat for underpaying a domestic servant from her own country, while routinely allowing US employers to get away with similar offenses when hiring illegal immigrants, demonstrates the arbitrary and corrupt application of this law.  I suppose strip searching a few ranchers and farmers might send a similar message about the seriousness of our commitment to employment law, or building a wall around the United Nations, patrolled by Border Police??

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Early reports often don't tell the whole story. Right now, there aren't any allegations of beatings/imprisonment of the servant, but let's see what details come out.

Along the way, it seems that the diplomat upped the ante by putting pressure on the servant's family in India. The cops there hauled in the servant's husband and her son and harassed them. Perhaps this led the U.S. officials to get tough too. It would seem so, based on the fact that this case has been going on since June, and the servant's husband and son were given visas and arrived in the U.S. just days before the diplomat's arrest.

At root is the stupid immigration laws, and it seems clear the the U.S. state department knew that diplomats fudge the wage-levels, but were willing to ignore that as long as that was the only offence. It isn't clear how much the state department had to do with this, and how much was the work of the ambitious Federal Attorney trying to emulate Guiliani and his perp-walk techniques.

I do hope the U.S. prosecutors have something more that just a lie about wage-levels. If that is all they've got, the whole charade was pretty self-defeating.

If the State Department is involved, this could also be payback for India jailing a US owned ship's crew on weapons charges recently. (Weapons they need to fight piracy.) Edited by Nicky
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