Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 53 (2021) Ghosts in America: Working Towards Building a Legal Framework for Stateless Individuals in the United States Guyanese nationals in United States custody that the DOJ deemed dangerous. 227 The next time the provision was used was in October 2016 against The Gambia, when it resisted pressure from the United States to cooperate with the repatriation of its nationals. 228 This decision came right after a July 2016 House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing in which ICE and the Department of State (DOS) discussed various measures used to persuade recalcitrant countries to cooperate. 229 In January 2017, 230 shortly after he took office, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13748, “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States.” 231 Section 12 of the Executive Order, “Recalcitrant Countries,” directs DHS and the DOS to utilize INA Section 243(d) to impose visa sanctions on countries designated as “recalcitrant.” 232 It also requires the Secretary of State to “ensure that diplomatic efforts and negotiations with foreign states include as a condition precedent the acceptance by those foreign states of their nationals who are subject to removal from the United States.” 233 As of September 8, 2018, the DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has designated ten countries (including Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Pakistan, Bhutan, China, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia) as recalcitrant. 234 An additional 24 are considered “at risk of noncompliance” (ARON). 235 The problem with this unilateral use of a diplomatic “stick” is that it may impede friendly bilateral relationships between the United States and other countries. 236 Some countries may retaliate in ways detrimental to bilateral trade, tourism, law enforcement, or other forms of cooperation. 237 It would also isolate the United States from the rest 227. Id. 228. Id. 229. Id.; see generally Recalcitrant Countries: Denying Visas to Countries that Refuse to Take Back Their Deported Nationals Before the Comm. on Oversight and Gov’t Reform, 114th Cong. (2016). 230. Matthew Sussis, Getting Even Tougher on Recalcitrant Countries, FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES (Apr. 15, 2019), CENTER https://cis.org/Sussis/Getting-Even-Tougher-Recalcitrant-Countries. 231. Recalcitrant, supra note 220, at 2. 232. See id. 233. Id. 234. Id. at 1. 235. Id. (currently, countries designated as “recalcitrant” include; Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, China, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Hong Kong). 236. Id. at 2. 237. Id. at 2–3. 382