# Diplomatic immunity of US citizens in US **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 26, 2005, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-immunity-of-us-citizens-in-us/296366 "2005-03-26T16:26:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-immunity-of-us-citizens-in-us/296366/21 "2005-03-27T17:37:06Z")
> [@](#): > > If a diplomat was indeed to commit a murder, could the host country choose to consider it an act of war? If the diplomat’s nations refused to allow prosecution, it would at the least probably mean a total withdrawal of trade and diplomatic exchanges. Yes, it can certainly be construed as an act of war. ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-immunity-of-us-citizens-in-us/296366/22 "2005-03-27T17:44:21Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > If the diplomat’s nations refused to allow prosecution, it would at the least probably mean a total withdrawal of trade and diplomatic exchanges. Yes, it can certainly be construed as an act of war. Probably? If the daughter of an African diplomat killed me in bed, I really doubt the US State Department would immediately suspend all trade with that nation. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-immunity-of-us-citizens-in-us/296366/23 "2005-03-27T18:59:48Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > My ex-F-I-L was the Ambassador to the US from Panama. He got a parking ticket somewhere in the wilds of New Jersey. He sent it back to the local police with a nice note. When he went back to the town (a girlfriend was involved), the ‘incident’ was on the front page of the local weekly paper. Heck, I have International Mission status in Panama. I’m a long long way from being Ambassador, but the cops know enough not to give me tickets. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-immunity-of-us-citizens-in-us/296366/24 "2005-03-27T19:03:28Z")
My apologies for mixing up the Ukraine and Georgia. That was very sloppy on my behalf. That’s what I get for writing posts without looking up every fact first. rfgdxm writes: \> I once knew a very young woman who was the daughter of ambassador to the \> US from an African nation who said she had diplomatic immunity. I meant that the diplomats are carefully selected. Yes, there are also the dependents of diplomats who aren’t so carefully screened. They are probably more of a problem than the diplomats themselves. The last major incident in the U.S. before the Georgian diplomat happened about twenty years ago, when the teenage son of a diplomat somehow killed some American. The entire family was immediately shipped home. Still, the point is that major crimes are very rare. ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-immunity-of-us-citizens-in-us/296366/25 "2005-03-28T05:30:32Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > I see you missed the bolded parts of the post. No, I didn’t, but perhaps I didn’t make the example clear enough. I was referring to harassing or ba-faith legal moves by the hosting nation, not to an actual illegally parked vehicle. Sorry if I was unclear. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2005, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-immunity-of-us-citizens-in-us/296366/26 "2005-03-29T03:17:33Z")
> [@Tapioca Dextrin](#): > > In order for a US citezen to become a diplomat inside the US, they would first have to renounce their US citizenship, get foreign citizenship, have their new country’s government apply for diplomatic accreditation and then get approval from the State Department. Of course, I know nothing about america law, but since this issue is regulated by treaties, the situation might be the same in all countries. So, I’m not so sure about the “renounce their american citizenship” part, since a similar issue arose in France one or two years ago : a french businessman prosecuted for some dubious deals with a african country was appointed by said country as a diplomat at the UNESCO (located in Paris), and so got a diplomatic immunity and the prosecution had to be stopped. I would note that it worked because the UNESCO diplomats are accredited by the UN, not by the host country (if he had been sent as a diplomat at the african country’s embassy, the french government coud have just refused to approve him). So, in this case, assuming the USA would apply the same principles, the Vatican could name this woman as its representant at the UN, in New-York, rather than at its embassy in Washington. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-immunity-of-us-citizens-in-us/296366.md?page=1)