Tuesday will see the addition of a new designation to State Department warnings for China, Russia, Iran, and other nations on the possibility of unjustifiable detention of Americans.
It is a component of a new executive order that the president signed with the intention of assisting Americans arrested abroad. The executive order will support the detainees’ families and impose penalties on the offenders, including potential financial punishment and visa restrictions.
Families of hostages and prisoners have increased their pressure on Biden, particularly in the cases of WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan, who are both being imprisoned in Russia.
Although it is uncertain whether the new order will lead to more Americans returning home, the government cited the clauses that will cost the kidnappers, claiming they will serve as a deterrent.
The directive also instructs the government to work with families more closely, including by sharing pertinent information, such as intelligence data, and by making more effort to secure releases.
The new “D-for illegal detention indicator” will be included in the order for State Department travel warnings for six more nations: China, Russia, Burma, North Korea, Venezuela, and Iran. It becomes a part of the kidnapping indication, K.
The White House stated in a fact sheet that the indicator “would emphasize the higher danger that Americans confront in specific countries and give Americans with full safety and security information with which to make educated travel decisions.”
Biden is under fire from the families of the detainees for not doing enough to obtain the release of their loved ones when the decision was made.
In the “Bring Our Families Home Campaign,” a coalition of family members has urged the president to get more personally involved in the cases.
Biden is signing the order the day before families with the ‘Bring Our Families Home Campaign’ come to Washington to unveil a mural depicting 18 Americans being detained abroad.
Administration officials didn’t say whether or not Biden would meet with the families. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has previously met with families of detainees.
According to the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, more than 60 Americans are unjustly imprisoned in around 18 different nations, some of them for more than a decade.
The presidential order uses sanctions and other methods to discourage and penalize the unjustified detention of American citizens abroad.
The order “advance[s] the unwavering commitment of the United States to bring home Americans who are held hostage or wrongfully detained,” the White House said, adding that it “creates new ways to impose costs on terrorist organizations, criminal groups, and other malicious actors who take hostages for financial, political, or other gains.”
On a conference call with reporters Monday night, a senior administration official stated that Tuesday won’t see the announcement of any fresh penalties.
On the briefing call, the officials brushed down the criticism from the families. They emphasized their work with families, claiming that much of it was customized for each specific instance and kept secret.
They also mentioned that Biden was prepared to intervene when necessary, as was the case with Trevor Reed, the American who was freed in exchange for Russian prisoners.
‘I would just emphasize a particular that in this administration, the president has been willing to make what he himself has said publicly are tough, but important calls what it means bringing home Americans call attention in particular, to his willingness to do what was necessary to bring home Trevor Reed from wrongful detention in Russia,’ a senior administration official.
Although Reed’s return was applauded, Biden’s action also sparked concerns about other instances, particularly Griner and Whelan.
After calling Griner’s wife Cherelle and responding to the basketball star’s letter, the president came under fire from Whelan’s sister.
Elizabeth Whelan noted that her brother had also written to the president and administration officials and expressed her “astonishment” that he had not received the same treatment. Soon after, Biden called her.
‘My message to the White House is that other families with far less resources have been waiting for years and years to see some action to bring their loved ones home. What we need to see is something a little more even handed,’ she told CNN earlier this month.
After playing in Moscow during the WNBA off-season, Griner was detained in February at a Moscow airport. According to Russian investigators, she was carrying cannabis oil in her luggage. This month, Griner entered a guilty plea to drug-related crimes.
Whelan was detained in 2018 on suspicion of spying, a claim he has refuted. He was found guilty and given a 16-year prison term in June 2020 after a trial that American officials deemed unfair.
The government is also handling the cases of two additional Americans, Alexander John-Robert Drueke and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, who were seized while fighting for Ukraine and are currently being imprisoned by the pro-Russian Donetsk People’s Republic.
The White House has repeatedly warned Americans not to go to the Ukraine.
Detainees can become political pawns in international diplomacy, particularly those being held by Russia.
The Biden administration is simultaneously trying to get their release while trying to avoid signaling the U.S. is open for business on making deals for detainees.
That would leave all Americans traveling abroad deeply vulnerable.