WASHINGTON -- Hoping to foil overseas kidnappers and reunite families, lawmakers are launching a congressional task force to address when Americans are taken hostage or are wrongfully detained abroad.
U.S. Reps. French Hill, R-Ark., and Ted Deutch, D-Fla., are spearheading the effort, which was unveiled Thursday in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol.
The lawmaker from Little Rock has been working for years to highlight the unlawful detention of Majd Kamalmaz, a University of Arkansas at Little Rock alumnus who was detained by Syrian officials in February 2017 during a trip to visit family.
Deutch sought the release of Bob Levinson, a retired FBI agent and constituent who was detained by Iranian officials in 2007.
The Trump administration concluded last year that Levinson had died while in Iranian custody; government officials had called him the longest-held hostage in American history.
Standing beside Kamalmaz's mother, Mouna Kamalmaz, and sister, Samar Hamwi, on Thursday, Hill emphasized not only the plight of those in captivity but also the pain inflicted on their parents, spouses and children.
"A lot of our families across the United States have a hole in their heart for their missing loved one," he said.
"It's only through a comprehensive and an all-of-government approach, with Congress and with the administration working together, that we can bring Americans home, take care of those affected families and disincentivize those corrupt governments and non-state actors that would take an American hostage," Hill said.
The past four years have been painful, Hamwi told reporters.
"I hope nobody has to go through what we went through because it's very hard. It's extremely hard. Every second of every day of every year, we're waiting," she said.
Deutch said lawmakers must work together to obtain freedom for those in captivity.
"We'll use the task force to project a voice in Congress on behalf of those wrongfully detained and held hostage," he said.
The new caucus will advocate for improperly detained Americans, encouraging administration officials to make their release a priority and pressuring foreign regimes to set them free.
It will also be a resource for members trying to free unjustly held constituents, Deutch said.
Kamalmaz, a psychotherapist and father of five, was born in Syria but immigrated to the U.S. as a child and eventually became a citizen.
He lived and worked for years in northern Virginia and still has family in the area.
After the war began in Syria, Kamalmaz helped establish a mental health clinic in Lebanon for refugees from the conflict.
Because of his diabetes, he requires medication.
Family members say Kamalmaz, 63, is apolitical, and he believed he could safely visit his native land. He was stopped at a government checkpoint near Damascus, one day after arriving in the country.
His whereabouts, since then, are unknown, U.S. officials say.
FBI missing persons posters, one in English and one in Arabic, share Kamalmaz's story.
Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to contact their local FBI field office or the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate, the posters state.
Last summer, two U.S. officials traveled to Syria hoping to obtain the release of Kamalmaz and another detainee, The Associated Press reported.
Efforts to free Kamalmaz and Austin Tice, a journalist kidnapped in Syria in 2012, were unsuccessful.
At Thursday's news conference, photos of Kamalmaz, Tice and 16 other detainees were on display. The actual number of people in captivity is higher, according to Margaux Ewen, executive director of the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation.
Foley, a freelance journalist covering the Syrian civil war, was kidnapped in 2012 and held by ISIS; his captors killed him in 2014.
The foundation was formed "to advocate for the freedom of all Americans held hostage abroad and promote the safety of journalists worldwide."
"According to our data ... there are at least 53 publicly known cases of Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained abroad in 13 countries. Some are being held by terrorist organizations, while others are held by foreign governments," Ewen said.
The creation of the task force is a welcome development, she said.
"It's incredibly encouraging to know that both sides of the aisle are dedicated to freeing American hostages and detainees, showing that partisanship has no place in this fight," she said.
Syrian Emergency Task Force Executive Director Mouaz Moustafa, a Syrian native and naturalized U.S. citizen who grew up in Arkansas, said political pressure can result in hostage releases.
"The more Congress is engaged on this ... the more that these families have hope," he said.