The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, by majority vote, has issued a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch concerning the targeting of Chinese American scientists for alleged spying and espionage. The Commission's letter expresses concern that the government may be failing to exercise sufficient due diligence when targeting Chinese Americans. The Commissions letter requests that the Department of Justice increase training and oversight in ongoing and future investigations and prosecutions.

"We urge you to investigate whether federal investigators and prosecutors improperly over-relied on race in recent prosecutions, and to increase training and oversight over ongoing and future investigations and prosecutions against Chinese Americans for spying and espionage," said the letter.

According to a recent article in Science magazine, in the past year, five Chinese-born scientists have been accused of economic espionage, only for the federal government to drop the charges because of insufficient or nonexistent evidence. Prosecutors arrested Temple University professor Dr. Xi Xiaoxing for sharing confidential laboratory equipment schematics but dropped the charges after scientists informed the government the plans he shared were for a different technology. Although charges were dropped, the accused were left with tarnished reputations and legal bills to pay.

These prosecutions have harmed the individual scientists and their families and caused concern in the Asian American community about unfair treatment and racial profiling.

Commission Chairman Martin R. Castro on behalf of the Commission stated, "While combating spying and economic espionage is vital to our national security, just as important are the protections of our civil rights and civil liberties. American citizens are entitled to due process and should not be targeted on the basis of their race or ethnicity - that is un-American."

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is an independent, bipartisan agency charged with advising the President and Congress on civil rights matters and issuing a federal civil rights enforcement report.