Russian medical researcher at Harvard, who protested the Ukraine war, detained by ICE
A Russian medical researcher at Harvard University is being detained at a Louisiana immigration facility after her visa was revoked last month over undeclared frog embryo samples found in her luggage, her lawyer told NBC News.
A Russian medical researcher at Harvard University is being detained at a Louisiana immigration facility after her visa was revoked last month over undeclared frog embryo samples found in her luggage, her lawyer told NBC News.
Kseniia Petrova has been in the U.S. on a J-1 scholar visa since May 2023, working at Harvard University. Her lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, said Petrova is fighting the possible deportation back to Russia for fear of persecution and jail time over her protests decrying the Ukraine war.
On Feb. 16, Petrova returned from France to Boston's Logan Airport from a work trip and passed through immigration without issue. But while awaiting her luggage, two Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers took her into a room to inspect her luggage and searched her phone, her lawyer said.
Inside, officers found a sample of frog embryos from her research.
Kseniia Petrova.Courtesy Petrova's attorney"They find a sample, scientific sample of frog embryos that she was bringing at the request of her principal investigator, her professor at Harvard, from the lab in France that they are collaborating with," Romanovsky said. "She had that in her luggage, and she did not declare it. She had no previous experience with bringing samples. She didn’t really think this through. She didn’t she didn’t look up the requirements. It was her fault. She was supposed to declare that item. She did not."
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