Story highlights Four countries face visa restrictions in a process initiated last week, DHS says

Trump had targeted the nations, which refuse to accept their nationals

Washington (CNN) The Trump administration will impose visa sanctions on four countries that refuse to take back foreign nationals deemed to be in the US illegally, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Dave Lapan said Wednesday.

The four countries -- Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea and Sierra Leone, according to a DHS source close to the deliberations -- come from a running list of countries the US designates as "recalcitrant" for not accepting, or delaying, repatriation of their own citizens after the US has tried to deport them.

On the campaign trail, then-candidate Trump railed against the Obama administration, and his opponent, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, for not employing sanctions to pressure uncooperative countries.

"There are at least 23 countries that refuse to take their people back after they've been ordered to leave the United States, including large numbers of violent criminals. They won't take them back. So we say, 'OK, we'll keep them.' Not going to happen with me, not going to happen with me," Trump said in an August 2016 speech.

Citizens of the four countries identified by the administration will face visa restrictions that could prevent them from entering the US.

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