TRAP Act Reports Ignore State Department's Interpol Abuse Reports

Conflicting Accounts on Interpol Abuse: Comparing US Government Reports, with Sandra Grossman, Red Notice Monitor, September 29, 2023. "Many of those organizations and individuals who championed the TRAP Act, in the hope that it would compel the U.S. government to lead the fight for the reform of Interpol as well as promote deeper understanding of Interpol abuse, have been sorely disappointed by the initial TRAP reports. In short, the DoJ-DoS TRAP reports contain numerous contradictions and misstatements of fact, and are incompatible with the better, if not complete, reporting on Interpol abuse published by the State Department in its Country Reports. There is room for significant improvement in the first two TRAP reports. The author also hopes that these reports are not representative of DoS and DoJ’s support for Interpol reforms."

The Latest Interpol GA Fiasco

Interpol’s New Leadership Demonstrates Lack of Will for Reform, with Sandra Grossman, National Interest, December 17, 2021. "Interpol makes valuable contributions to fighting crime that crosses international borders, but human rights organizations have rightly criticized the organization for failing to properly vet requests for police cooperation. Interpol did nothing to calm those concerns at its latest General Assembly meeting, held November 23-25 in Istanbul."

How to Protect the U.S. Judicial System from Interpol Politicization

Protecting the U.S. Judicial System from A Politicized Interpol, with Sandra Grossman, The Federalist Society, January 30, 2020. "The problem with Interpol is that not all national governments genuinely respect the divide on which Interpol’s constitution is predicated, the divide between offenses against ordinary criminal law on the one hand, and politicized offenses on the other. For too many governments, political opposition or financial independence is itself a criminal act. Since Interpol is for all intents and purposes a universal membership organization, it faces the relentless need to examine the uses its members are making of it, in order to ensure it is complying with its constitution. This is particularly true now the Interpol operates electronically, as the speed and interconnected nature of modern communications and databases means that the consequences of Interpol abuse – the use of Interpol for political or other forbidden purposes – can now have nearly instantaneous and worldwide effect."

Reviewing the TRAP Act

The TRAP Act’s Contribution to Preventing Transnational Repression Through Interpol, with Sandra Grossman, Federalist Society Review, January 10, 2020. "The Transnational Repression Accountability and Prevention (TRAP) Act of 2019, introduced in both the House and Senate in September, is a bipartisan response to widespread concern about the abuse of Interpol by authoritarian governments for political purposes. Repressive regimes, particularly in Russia, China, Turkey, and Venezuela, use Interpol to issue illegitimate Red Notices and diffusions against political opponents. The effect of this abuse can be severe and is borne by individuals whose due process guarantees and human rights are harmed. As a result, Interpol abuse has drawn increasing attention and criticism from a wide range of international organizations, political leaders, and non-governmental organizations."

It's Not An Arrest Warrant

Challenging a Red Notice: What Immigration Attorneys Need to Know About INTERPOL [PDF], AILA Law Journal, volume 1, number 1, April 2019.

This was my 1000th piece at Heritage.

"The International Criminal Police Organization—officially ICPO-INTERPOL, commonly known simply as INTERPOL—plays an important role in international law enforcement, and its publications are often used in U.S. immigration and asylum cases. But neither INTERPOL nor its publications, such as its famous “Red Notice,” are well understood. This can lead attorneys to fail to appropriately challenge Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or immigration judge (IJ) assertions about INTERPOL that are often incorrect. For example, too often IJs uncritically defer to INTERPOL publications in their decisions, resulting in extended detention time or denials of bonds and other requests for immigration benefits, and in general causing serious damage to an individual’s U.S. immigration case."