Russian researcher at Harvard being held after failing to declare frog embryos at customs
A Russian researcher at Harvard University is being detained at a Louisiana detention center over failing to declare frog embryos while passing through customs, according to a complaint filed by her attorney.
Kseniia Petrova, a Harvard medical researcher who is in the U.S. on an exchange visitor visa, was detained last month at an airport in Boston after a Customs and Border Protection officer found "noninfectious and non-toxic frog embryos in her luggage," the complaint said.
Petrova was bringing the samples at the request of the leader of her research group at Harvard Medical School, according to the complaint.
"Upon discovery [of the] the samples following a search of her luggage, and despite her attempts to explain, the CBP officer failed to pursue the statutory and regulatory process for failure to declare an article in luggage," the complaint says. "Rather, the officer marked [Petrova's] visa in her passport as canceled."
According to the complaint, Petrova told the CBP officer that she feared being returned to Russia, where she faced past persecution for her political activities, and instead requested to be returned to France -- at which point she was detained.
"Rather than imposing the appropriate monetary penalties for the customs violation, CBP improperly invoked their extensive immigration authority to impose a punishment grossly disproportionate to the situation," Petrova's attorney, Greg Romanovsky, said in a statement to ABC News.
"This overreach reflects broader concerns about the treatment of international scholars by U.S. immigration authorities," Romanovsky said.
Petrova's detention comes as the Trump administration moves to revoke hundreds of student visas as part of its immigration crackdown.
"Ms. Petrova's situation is especially dire because the U.S. government is now seeking to deport her to Russia, where she faces the threat of immediate arrest due to her prior political activism and outspoken opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine," Romanovsky told ABC News.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Petrova was lawfully detained after "lying to federal officers about carrying biological substances into the country."
"Messages found on her phone revealed she planned to smuggle the materials through customs without declaring them," the spokesperson said. "She knowingly broke the law and took deliberate steps to evade it."
The lawsuit, filed by Petrova's attorney in the U.S. District Court of Vermont, requests that a federal judge declare the cancelation of Petrova's visa unlawful.
Petrova is set to appear before an immigration judge in Louisiana on May 7.
