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 Washington has been seeking to send Susan Coppedge, its newly
appointed anti-people trafficking ambassador, and Randy Berry, its
special envoy for LGBT rights, to New Delhi this month.
Human trafficking has caused friction between the United States and
India. The countries also disagree on gay rights, which the Obama
administration promotes, while homosexuality in India is illegal.
The source, who did not want to identified, said the visits had run
into problems.
“These visits were planned, they were meant to be here around this
time. But there were some issues," the source said.
The State Department declined formal comment but a department
official said the two sides were "working to coordinate the best
timing.”
 India's Foreign Ministry did not respond to request for comment and
Indian Ambassador Arun K. Singh did not offer clarification when
asked on Thursday about Coppedge's plan to visit, which was revealed
at a Nov. 4 congressional hearing by Kari Johnstone, principal
deputy director of the State Department's trafficking office.
"We'll see," Singh told reporters. "When you ask a U.S. official
when somebody will be given a visa, they always say ‘we will assess
when visa is applied for.’ ... I can do no better than to reiterate
the U.S. position."
The human trafficking issue blew up in 2013 over the arrest of an
Indian diplomat, Devyani Khobragade, for visa fraud and underpaying
a domestic worker who was later given a U.S. "T visa" issued to
trafficking victims.
Khobragade's arrest and strip search provoked an outcry in India and
the issue has festered, although U.S.-India relations have
strengthened since Modi came to power in May 2014, with both sides
stressing shared strategic interests.
U.S. officials say Indian citizens who have been issued U.S. T visas
have been subject to restrictions, including long delays in renewing
passports at Indian consulates in the United States.
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Between July 2014 and March 2015, the crackdown was harsher, with
authorities at Indian airports confiscating at least 20 passports
stamped with U.S. T visas confiscated. This prevented trafficking
victims who went home to collect their families from returning to
the United States.
Berry is Washington's first gay-rights ambassador and a U.S.
official said no trafficking czar had visited India for the past
eight years.
The India ambassador played down the impact of the trafficking issue
on U.S.-India relations, saying these were "at a very good stage
now." with two visits by Modi to the United States, and Obama
becoming the first U.S. president to visit India twice while in
office.
"These are all reflections of where the relationship is headed," he
said.
India was happy to work in an international framework to tackle the
problem of trafficking, but rejected "unilateral assessments" of
another country," he said.
"We will never accept it," he said.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Jason Szep and David
Gregorio)
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