Federal prosecutors confirmed in a Wednesday hearing that they aim to deport the Russian-born Harvard Medical School researcher ensnared in President Donald Trump’s war on immigration despite her fear of persecution for opposing the war in Ukraine.
The same day, newly unsealed court documents revealed the Justice Department is pursuing a felony smuggling charge against the scientist, 30-year-old Kseniia Petrova, in Massachusetts federal court.
How immigration authorities have treated Petrova — and other immigrant academics like her — threatens to chill scientific advancement throughout the U.S. as highly skilled foreigners doubt they can pursue their work in peace.
Petrova normally spends her days conducting cutting-edge research on aging using a new type of microscope. But she has been held in a Louisiana Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center for the past three months after neglecting to declare scientific samples upon reentry to the United States from France. Her boss at Harvard had asked her to pick up the frog embryo samples from another lab when she went on a trip to Paris.
While Petrova has taken responsibility for the mistake, her attorney says that such an oversight would normally result in a mere fine.
