US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order creating a “state sponsor of wrongful detention” designation meant to penalize countries that wrongfully imprison Americans.

The new designation is meant to deter countries from illegally detaining US citizens and encourage them to release wrongful detainees that they have in custody.

It will be up to the secretary of state to determine which countries will be given the designation and “includes the options of sanctions and also inadmissibility of nationals from those countries,” a senior administration official said Friday.

The executive order could also be used to restrict US citizens from traveling to countries known for detaining Americans for use as political pawns. Nations like Venezuela, Russia, Iran, China and Afgha

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