This summer will mark five years since I was kidnapped and wrongfully imprisoned by the Rwandan government.

For 939 days, I sat in prison, cut off from my family and community. I was held in solitary confinement, denied medical care and often unable to speak with my lawyers. The days felt endless ‒ like a nightmare I couldn’t escape.

For my family, it was a different sort of nightmare. Overnight, their lives were transformed. My wife and children were left to navigate the complex web of U.S. federal offices tasked with hostage recovery. My family became full-time advocates for my return, pleading my case before U.S. government officials and sharing my story with the news media. They recruited everyone from national nonprofits and grassroots organizations to Hollywood celebrities who had first learned my story from the movie “Hotel Rwanda.”

Led by my family’s passion and persistence, all of these groups played a role in securing my freedom in 2023. There are no words to describe my gratitude. Alongside that gratitude is my fierce commitment to ensure that no individual ‒ and no family ‒ goes through this alone.

Over the past two decades, there has been a significant rise in the overseas arbitrary detention of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents like me. Arbitrary detention means someone is detained without due process, and most of the........

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