DEFENDING DEMOCRACY IN EXILE Policy Responses to Transnational Repression Autocrats cast a long shadow onto America’s soil. Alinejad’s experience, although shocking, is not isolated. Attacks against foreign dissidents living in the United States have taken place since at least the 1950s, but operations by foreign intelligence agents have significantly intensified in recent years. The governments of Iran, China, Egypt, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, and other states are increasingly and more aggressively disregarding US laws to threaten, harass, surveil, stalk, and even plot to physically harm people across the country. Far from being a foreign problem, transnational repression impacts the lives and freedoms of people living in the United States. By reaching across national borders to silence dissent, these governments are engaging in transnational repression. Potential targets of transnational repression in the United States include people who support human rights and democracy in their former homelands, and those who advocate for the well-being of friends and family they left behind.4 Far from being a foreign problem, transnational repression impacts the lives and freedoms of people living in the United States. It violates their right to privacy, free expression, and free movement. The violence and harassment directed by authoritarian governments is not just a problem for the targeted individuals. Hindering their rights and freedoms has direct consequences for the quality of America’s democracy and institutions. Authorities, particularly at the federal level, are increasingly aware of the threat of transnational repression within the United States, and have taken steps to prevent the worst of it: assassination attempts, rendition, and assault. However, property damage, stalking, and intimidation still occur, causing severe disruption to people’s lives. The Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and State, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are part of a recently launched “whole-of-government” approach to this issue, which is being coordinated by the National Security Council. Significant effort has been expended to make federal law enforcement practices more responsive to the threat of transnational repression, deploy targeted sanctions to hold perpetrators accountable, and prosecute those engaging in the most aggressive campaigns. Important action has also been taken by Congress, including passage of legislation to help end the authoritarian practice of misusing Interpol to target critics. However, more remains to be done, especially with regard to America’s immigration system, which is overwhelmed, understaffed, and vulnerable to exploitation by foreign governments. The costs of security cooperation and arms trade between the United States and governments that perpetrate transnational repression have also largely escaped scrutiny. The next phase in addressing the threat of transnational repression must ensure that America’s own institutions and practices cannot be easily co-opted by authoritarian states seeking to harm political exiles and diasporas. Suggested citation: Yana Gorokhovskaia and Isabel Linzer, “Unsafe in America: Transnational Repression in the United States,” in Defending Democracy in Exile: Policy Responses to Transnational Repression (Washington, DC: Freedom House, June 2022), https://freedomhouse.org/report/transnational-repression/united-states. 2 @FreedomHouse #TransnationalRepression