by Eleni R. Bakst
Volume 61, No. 1, 2026
Abstract
INTERPOL Red Notices—akin to international wanted posters—are meant to serve as precursors to extradition, surrender, or other legal proceedings.
Countries with differing criminal legal systems and corruption levels request Red Notices, and INTERPOL reviews such requests through a basic and limited administrative process. As a result, abusive and corrupt regimes wishing to target political dissidents, journalists, activists, and even ordinary citizens who have fled seeking safety abuse INTERPOL’s notice system. While the United States Department of Justice considers Red Notices to be an insufficient basis for probable cause or arrest, Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts enforcement actions against noncitizens with Red Notices, targeting them for
detention and deportation, generally without any meaningful verification of the contents of the Red Notice. This undue reliance on Red Notices can lead to the initiation of removal proceedings, prolonged and unjustified detention, denial of life-saving fear-based protections from removal, and deportation. Ultimately, through Red Notices, abusive regimes can instrumentalize the U.S. immigration system to achieve the same result—return of their wanted national—through a faster, easier, and less protective mechanism than extradition: deportation. This form of “disguised extradition” has turned the United States into a weapon for these governments, causing it to violate its non-refoulement obligations and noncitizens’ due process rights.