US State Department Sanctions Four Countries After Refusing To Accept Deportees

The U.S. imposed visa sanctions on four countries after they refused to accept deported nationals on Wednesday, according to the Homeland Security Department.

The four countries are Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, and Sierra Leone and are being sanctioned "due to lack of cooperation" on deportations.

The most severe sanction will target Eritrea with a pause in the issuance of B visas for business and tourism.

In Cambodia, high-level government officials and immediate family members will be denied to access to business and tourism travel.

Guinea will have the issuance of student and cultural exchange visas stopped to certain government officials and family members, along with B visas.

For Sierra Leone, officials in the country's foreign ministry and immigration offices will be denied business and tourist visas.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January that directed the Secretary of State to enter into negotiations with any "recalcitrant countries" that would refuse deported nationals from the U.S.

If the countries refused to comply, the executive order said that DHS and the State Department must impose sanctions.

“The United States itself routinely cooperates with foreign governments in documenting and accepting its citizens when asked, as do the majority of countries in the world,” said acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke in a related announcement. “However, these countries have failed to do so, and that one-way street ends with these sanctions.”

Sanctions were previously a last resort tactic, but have now emerged as a new weapon in the Trump administration's crack down on immigration.

DHS spokesperson David Lapan said in late August that 12 countries were flagged as uncooperative.

That list included countries that predated the Trump administration but was comprised of China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Iran, Guinea, Cambodia, Eritrea, Burma, Morocco, Hong Kong, and South Sudan.

Lapan said that four of those nations would be subject to visa sanctions back in August, but did not confirm a news report that previously identified them.

Acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke notified the State Department that the four countries refused to accept deported nationals, which triggered the sanctions.

DHS said the countries did not establish reliable processes to issue travel documents for the people with removal orders.

“Without an appropriate response from the impacted countries, the scope of these sanctions may be expanded to a wider population,” DHS said in a written statement.

DHS and the State Department said that the policies will remain in effect until Duke signals Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that cooperation “has improved to an acceptable level,” the department said.