Congress moves to help wrongful detainees

The U.S. House approved the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, with provisions designed to help Americans wrongfully detained by other countries. That includes Michigan native Paul Whelan, who was held by Russia for more than five years before his release this summer in a massive prisoner exchange.

Michigan Congresswoman Haley Stevens co-chairs a House task force on hostages and wrongful detainees. She says the new defense act should help both detainees like Whelan and their families.

Listen: Congress moves to help wrongful detainees

The following interview was edited for clarity.

Rep. Haley Stevens: While we’re delighted to see Paul Whelan return home, we also have ongoing wrongful detainee situations and hostage situations all across the world. One that’s really visceral is the ongoing hostage taking in the Middle East, in Gaza. And what we want to do is make it harder for adversaries of this country to take Americans. We want to put our full weight into deterrence. We want to make sure that we have a sound strategy. We want to make sure we have the resources. And I am absolutely thrilled that after a lot of work, we got into the defense bill several key provisions around deterrence, around passport applications, to cut through some of the steps. If you are taken, God forbid, you will immediately have resources if you choose to select that on your passport application.

And we also are saying that we mean business. So one of the key things that we did is improve already existing legislation, the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act. No later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this legislation, relevant agencies will be coordinated from the White House through multiple government agencies when a citizen is detained. Because one of the things that we found is, no surprise with a big federal government, the left hand is not talking to the right hand a lot of times. So we’re opening up communication strategies. That is absolutely critical for what we call emergency hostage or wrongful detention situations.

Another provision will authorize $2 million to the Departments of State and Treasury to carry out sanction authorities. Sometimes people engage in illegal activity abroad and that’s another matter. But on other occasions, they are taken and wrongfully detained, wrongfully held. That’s exactly what happened to Paul Whelan, to Trevor Reed, to Brittney Griner to a certain extent. We’ve got other state actors, like Iran, that disappear people. And we don’t have diplomacy with that state around the hostage. What Putin did in Russia is he wanted to swap prisoners.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: When you talk about the Levinson Act, another portion of that is supposed to help those that are wrongfully detained when they return. Provide them with five years of medical coverage, mental health and other support, et cetera. Congress has never funded that provision. Of the $2 million that you mention, will any of it fund that portion of the Levinson Act that would help wrongful detainees when they return?

HS: We need to do that. That’s the next phase, to get those appropriations. And there’s more to do around the Levinson Act, frankly. Someone like Paul Whelan had five-and-a-half years taken from him. If he was wrongfully in prison in the United States, he’d arguably get a compensation fund. Paul Whelan right now is living off of a GoFundMe. It’s unacceptable and it’s wrong. I’m certainly in some respects disappointed in his former employer for not keeping him on their payroll. Paul’s lived experience is very elucidating. So we need to think about compensation.

The advocacy piece that we got done in the NDAA at the end of 2023 created a fund that allows families to receive lodging when they’re advocating on behalf of their loved one. We’re amending that in this year’s NDAA. It is really important. Elizabeth Whelan, Paul’s sister, spent over $100,000 over six years with endless hours of traveling and coordinating with the government. She was just in my office for two-and-a-half hours the other day. These are ways in which we need to make Americans and American families whole. People are being targeted because they’re American. In Paul’s case and in Trevor Reed’s case, they were former U.S. Marines as well.

QK: No one has a crystal ball. But when you talk about adding extra funding into the Levinson Act, or any other funding that would aid this cause, it would all be coming when the Trump administration would be in effect with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress. They have talked often about not wanting to fund certain areas and cutting back on spending. Do you have any concerns that funding for wrongful detainees is going to fall prey to that view by the incoming administration and Congress?

HS: I feel more optimistic than not that we will continue to move forward. People from all political stripes are very passionate about these hostages and wrongful detainees and their return home. It’s really personal.

My colleague, Texas Republican Congressman Michael Cloud, had a wrongful detainee, a political prisoner in China, who was released a handful of weeks ago. He said that this individual did not know what a QR code is because of all the years that they had been detained. There’s just support that is needed.

We are authorizing and appropriating funds year after year as a Congress. I remain very confident that we will continue to do good legislation. We will continue to work towards making people like Paul Whelan whole. I am not stopping. And every step of the way, this legislation has been bipartisan, helping hostages fight for their return and make their return as easy as possible. There’s absolutely more to do. But this year’s NDAA is, in my opinion, a sign of more to come.