As we celebrate Brittney Griner's release, don't forget the Americans left behind

WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner was freed last week from a Russian prison after a 10-month wrongful detention in Russia. Amid the celebration of her release was the heartbreaking reminder that Paul Whelan, an American wrongfully detained for four years in Russia, is still not home.

In fact, 60 America nationals continue to be held abroad, waiting for the U.S. government to secure their release.

As the mother of American journalist James Foley and the son of public servant Robert “Bob” Levinson, we know what it is like to be abandoned by the country they loved.

Opinions in your inbox: Get exclusive access to our columnists and the best of our columns every day

Jim was held hostage for nearly two years before his public beheading in 2014, while Bob was kidnapped in Iran in 2007 and determined to have died in captivity. They both trusted that their country would rescue them, but to this day even their remains have not returned home.

U.S. government must do more to free hostages

Together, we call on the U.S. government to do more to help hostages and those wrongfully held abroad, including comprehensively reviewing its hostage enterprise efforts to ensure that no Americans suffer as our families have.

International hostage taking and wrongful detention, increasingly by state actors, has become an urgent crisis. President Joe Biden acknowledged the seriousness of this threat, declaring a national emergency in July to address the growing challenge.

The Bringing Americans Home annual report, compiled by the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, has revealed alarming trends regarding Americans held abroad. There has been a 175% increase of incidents of U.S. nationals unjustly detained internationally over the last decade, particularly those taken by foreign government and state actors instead of terrorist groups.

Nineteen countries, led by China, Iran, Venezuela, Russia and Syria, have consistently targeted and wrongfully arrested U.S. nationals. Since 95% of captors today are foreign countries, negotiating the release of those held has become increasingly complex, and the duration of unjust detentions has lengthened to an average of five to 10 years in captivity.

Terrorists killed my journalist son and threaten others. Democracy needs them to be safe.

Essentially, our adversaries are seeing our fellow citizens as tools to leverage in diplomatic battles with the United States, and the number of cases of Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained continues to rise as they become more difficult to resolve.

Paul Whelan is still waiting for help

These reasons are why the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation is deeply relieved and extraordinarily grateful for Brittney’s safe return home. Her case was prioritized by the highest officials in our government as the United States seemingly spared no expense and leveraged all its top resources in its persistence and determination to bring her home. As they should!

Unfortunately, this approach stands in sharp contrast to that used for Paul Whelan, Jim Foley, Bob Levinson and dozens of other Americans who have died in captivity or are wrongfully imprisoned today.

American missing in Syria: Austin Tice has been missing for 10 years. President Biden, it's time to bring him home.

The spotlight placed on Brittney’s release has illuminated the challenges within our hostage enterprise structures and the immense difficulty that families have in making their loved one’s cases a priority. For instance, 12 desperate families that stand united in the Bring Our Families Home campaign have spent the past several months requesting a meeting with the president without receiving a response.

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store.

More broadly, our government hostage enterprise structure needs significant revisions. Since its inception in 2015, little has changed or evolved to meet these growing issues. The initial hostage enterprise structure was created from a comprehensive review of the actions of criminal gangs, pirates and terrorists – captors who require a markedly different response strategy compared with negotiations with foreign governments.

There has been no reevaluation since 2016 and no updates to adapt to the complexity of today’s type of wrongful detention.

We know that change is possible. Our families worked together and alongside countless government officials and entities to advocate for the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, which expands government tools to combat this rampant practice of wrongful detentions and which was signed into law in late 2020.

Today, the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation and the Levinson family urgently request our government to build on this legislation by providing funding for this act, as well as ordering a comprehensive review of the entire hostage enterprise to include wrongful detentions and to strategize swift, strong deterrents to captors.

Additionally, we must create a path for an expedited, transparent consular designation of U.S. nationals who are wrongfully detained, and we should symbolically remember Americans held abroad by codifying a hostage and wrongful detainee flag.

Brittney Griner's release is a miracle: Celebrate that, and save the politics for later.

We cannot stand by while state actors target and unjustly arrest our citizens. All citizens traveling internationally will be unsafe, our foreign policy will be weakened and our economy will be threatened.

We truly believe that the United States can and will prioritize the safety of its citizens and the return of all its innocent U.S. nationals. Our country only needs better tools and resources to do so.

Brittney Griner deserved our country’s best efforts – our fellow captured citizens deserve nothing less.

Diane Foley is the mother of journalist James Foley, who was held hostage and murdered by terrorists in 2014. David Levinson is the son of Robert "Bob" Levinson, a retired FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to [email protected].

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Griner's release is tough reminder of those who haven't come home