Countering Wrongful Detention Act of 2025

The Countering Wrongful Detention Act of 2025 would add a formal tool to U.S. foreign policy to deter governments and nonstate actors from unlawfully detaining U.S. nationals for political leverage. By amending the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, the bill creates a process to designate foreign countries as “State Sponsors of Unlawful or Wrongful Detention” if they detain or help detain U.S. nationals under specified conditions. Designations come with congressional oversight, mandatory reporting, and a framework of potential responses using existing tools (sanctions, visa bans, export controls, etc.). The bill also requires periodic briefings on the designated countries, and it lays out a rule that not every detention is automatically considered wrongful, reserving determinations for designated authorities. In short, the bill seeks to formalize designation, oversight, and a range of policy tools to deter wrongful detentions.