Trump to punish countries that unjustly detain US citizens
President Donald Trump has signed an executive decree which aims to punish countries that illegally hold American citizens.
The order will give the State Department the power to impose sanctions or take other measures against countries by creating a designation “sponsor of the unjustified state of detention”.
The White House said that the ordinance is designed to “protect American nationals from unjustified detention abroad by authorizing solid responses against foreign governments that engage in such practices”.
The United States government does not publish the number of Americans detained abroad. The Foley Foundation, a defense group for defenders, said that at least 54 Americans were wrongly detained in 17 countries in 2024.
In a press release, Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the signing of “unprecedented measures to impose new consequences on those who wrongly hold Americans abroad”.
Rubio said that the designation could lead to penalties, including things such as economic sanctions and visa restrictions, foreign assistance and trips to American passport holders.
He added that the new designation is modeled after the sponsor of the state of the classification of terrorism, so “no nation should want to be on this list”.
“Whoever uses an American as a bargaining currency will pay the price,” he said.
The order also applies to non -state actors “controlling an important territory” even if they are not recognized as governments, said the White House.
There is no indication of the moment when the Trump administration would take measures against offended countries.
The State Department noted that most of the detention or arrests of American nationals abroad occur after legitimate incidents of application of the law or the judicial processes.
The White House said that the president had released 72 American detainees.
These include Marc Fogel, an American teacher who was wrongly detained in a Russian prison, and George Glezmann, who was detained by the Taliban in Afghanistan for more than two years.
The Foley Foundation, which was founded to honor journalist James Foley who was kidnapped and killed by the Islamic State, noted in his 2024 report that unjustified detention cases represented 83% of Americans detained in foreign countries.
During Trump’s first term, Congress adopted the Robert Levinson law which said that the State Department can determine whether an American is wrongly owned according to several criteria, such as the equity of the country’s judicial system or if it is held hostage to extract the concessions of Washington DC.
