Freedom House information on him, and subsequently testify at his trial in Rwanda after he was abducted and returned to the country.47 Martin’s FARA registration described her work as research focused on organization and political activity among the Rwandan diaspora and on documenting genocide denial or genocide ideology.48 Martin’s FARA registration allowed her to collect information as part of legal “lobbying” activity that eventually caused direct harm to a permanent resident of the United States. Interpol abuse Interpol—formally the International Criminal Police Organization—facilitates international cooperation on criminal matters. It does not, as popularly believed, fight international crime. Interpol notices are a method for distributing information about wanted or missing people and stolen passports among member states; they are not international arrest warrants. Interpol prohibits its members from using notices to engage in political, military, or religious activities. This means that countries should only submit notices and diffusions in cases of ordinary, non-political crime. (A diffusion is information that is shared directly between member states rather than by Interpol.) Despite this, in a practice that has come to be known as “Interpol abuse,” the governments of countries including Turkey, Russia, and China issue Interpol Red Notices to detain exiles and dissidents beyond their borders, including in the United States. US authorities are keenly aware of the problem of Interpol abuse. In late 2021, Congress passed the Transnational Repression Accountability and Prevention (TRAP) Act as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).49 The TRAP Act attempts to counter cooptation of Interpol by authoritarian states and sets guidance for the United States to leverage its role as the organization’s biggest funder to pursue institutional reform. While this is crucial to countering Interpol abuse internationally, the Act does not address the detrimental impact of abusive Red Notices on people who are moving through America’s immigration system. The TRAP Act confirms guidance issued by the Department of Justice that Interpol notices do not meet constitutionally guaranteed due process standards50 and therefore cannot be used for the purposes of arrest or extradition. However, in practice, Interpol’s Red Notices are never used directly for extradition or detention.51 Instead, Red Notices are used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to locate and target noncitizens with immigration violations, which can then lead to their removal from the country. This problem is known as “denial of services,” whereby Red Notices lead to denial of immigration services that an individual would otherwise be entitled to. In an infamous case from 2017, Alexey Kharis spent 15 months in detention in California after his visa was revoked as a result of an abusive Interpol Red Notice issued by Moscow. 52 Kharis had come to the United States after his construction company in Vladivostok was seized by authorities when he refused to cooperate with an embezzlement scheme run by regional officials. In another case, Gregory Duralev spent 18 months in a maximum-security prison after he was arrested by ICE during his asylum interview based on an Interpol notice issued by Russia, which accused him of fraud.53 The problem may even be more widespread than publicly reported. At the time of writing, Freedom House was aware of fifteen ongoing cases at US immigration courts that involve Interpol notices from countries known to issue abusive Red Notices. Despite the consequential passage of the TRAP Act, Interpol abuse against people in the United States—including many with lawful immigration status— remains possible. Red Notices can also present obstacles to claims for asylum made in the United States. A recent decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals held that a Red Notice could be construed as “reliable evidence [of] a serious nonpolitical crime.” This is one of the statutory bars that, if triggered, leads to an automatic denial of asylum.54 Frustratingly, noncitizen defendants in immigration courts in the United States are not entitled to government-provided counsel. In cases involving Red Notices, people claiming asylum are left to represent themselves without legal counsel against the government of the United States, the foreign government issuing the notice, and the perceived legitimacy of Interpol. Unassisted, these individuals must overcome the burden of explaining why Red Notices are mere unvetted accusations, not evidence of a crime. In sum, despite the consequential passage of the TRAP Act, Interpol abuse against people in the United States—including many with lawful immigration status—remains possible. freedomhouse.org 9