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Twenty-two members of U.S. Congress on Thursday urged the country's Attorney General Loretta Lynch to review espionage-related charges brought against a Chinese-American hydrologist and asked her to determine whether race played a factor in the so called "spy case".
In a letter to Lynch, the 22 Congress members said they were responding to a recent article in The New York Times that reported federal agents investigated Sherry Chen, a 59-year-old National Weather Service employee, as a possible Chinese spy, found no evidence, but still arrested her for lesser charges that could have led to 25 years in prison and one million dollars in fines.
According to the letter, although the U.S. government dropped its charges, without explanation, in March, Chen now still has to wait for a decision from U.S. Commerce Department, which oversees the weather service, as to whether it plans to reinstate her.
The female scientist, who was initially suspended without pay, has said that she would like her job back. She has not been back to her Wilmington, Ohio, office since the day she was escorted away in handcuffs by six agents of U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the letter said.
But so far, the Commerce Department did not respond to requests for an update of her employment status.
House Representative Ted Lieu, representing the Congress members, said during a press conference in the U.S. capital that their letter is aimed to ask Attorney General to investigate whether there is a practice of targeting federal employees based on their race or national origin.
The investigation of Chen, who was targeted in a high-profile espionage case that was dropped shortly before a trial was set to begin, may be indicative of a broader racial profiling campaign against Asian-Americans, Lieu said.
"There's been a history of discrimination against Asian Pacific Americans, and the recurrent theme is one of suspicion," he said, adding that "we now have Sherry Chen's case, and I want to make sure our federal government does not discriminate against any Americans, especially federal employees."
Meanwhile, the members of Asian-American rights groups are seriously concerned that the FBI made conclusions, not based on any evidence, but on racial profiling.
During the same press conference, George Koo, a member of the Committee of 100, a Washington-based Chinese-American advocacy group, said the group is asking for Chen's reinstatement, including back pay and a public apology. Enditem
