The judge hears the case of Harvard genetics researcher Xenia Petrova, who has been in ice custody since February.
Newark Mayor Las Baraka has been arrested outside the ice detention facility
Rus Baraka, mayor of Newark, New Jersey and Democratic candidate for governor, was reportedly arrested outside the recently opened immigration detention center.
The lawsuit, which can test the limits of the Trump administration’s authority to detain visa holders, including students and academics, is poised to go before federal judges.
US District Court Judge Christina Reese will hear the May 14th debate for the Harvard scientist from Russia who claims that the Trump administration accidentally detained her.
US Customs and Border Patrol cancelled Kseniia Petrova’s visa in February after the US Customs and Border Patrol failed to declare a science sample when he returned to Boston from France, and officials handed her over to ice. Her lawyers argue that CBP’s actions are “arbitrary and whimsical” and that her detention is illegal.
The Trump administration says it acted within its authority. Petrova was “legally detained after lying to a federal officer about transporting material into the country,” Homeland Security said in a statement.
Here’s what you need to know about the Petrova case:
Who is Kseniia Petrova?
Petrova, 30, is the finest geneticist who worked in the Harvard Medical School lab on the J-1 Workstudy Visa, where he conducted anti-aging and cancer research.
Before coming to Harvard, she was working on the Genome Russia project in her native country, and mapped genetic variations in humanity when she violated the Vladimir Putin government to protest Russia’s war with Ukraine.
She escaped and soon found the road to Harvard and another of the world’s important genetics labs. Petrova’s supervisor Leon Peshkin runs a lab that works on one of the hottest areas of science: anti-aging research.
“I’m struggling to find applied mathematicians and I understand biology,” Peshkin told USA Today until he found Petrova. “She was the perfect match.”
What did Kseniia Petrova bring to the country?
Peshkin asked Petrova to bring a sample of frog embryos back to the lab from the Institute Curie in Paris. Previous shipments to the lab had been lost or damaged during shipping, so Peshkin thought that if he had destiny it would be more efficient.
Petrova says he doesn’t believe that the sample must be declared because it is not alive. Her complaints in U.S. District Court say they are embedded in paraffin, chemically fixed, dehydrated and “completely harmless.”
In a statement, the government said in a K9 test of Petrova’s luggage that “unknown Petri dishes, containers of unknown substances, and loose vials of embryonic frog cells are all not adequately authorized.”
CBP has a web page that outlines the rules for importing biological materials into the United States.
Embryos “cannot develop or transmit disease,” said Martin Charfei, chairman of the National Academy Committee, which advocates detained scientists in connection with scientific research, in an Amicus outline filed in federal court.
“Similar materials can be found at high schools and university biology labs across the United States,” said Chalfie, a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry.
Why is Ksiia Petrova there?
US Customs initially stamped Petrova’s passport and affirmed the J-1 Scholars visa when it landed at Logan International Airport in Boston in February. However, in a baggage request, the officer flagged the package of the item that was not declared.
Typically, CBP can seize items and issue fines if they are not properly declared. In Petrova’s case, customs officials cancelled their visa, rescinded their application for admission to the US, and asked if they wanted to return to France on their next flight.
She showed she was willing to do so.
“At that point,” the CBP official asked Petrova, according to the complaint. “Would you like the US government to contact the Russian government to let you know you are here?” Then, “Are you afraid of returning to your home country or are you afraid?”
Petrova said he feared returning to Russia due to political persecution, according to the complaint.
The allegations of fear sparked an asylum process, according to the complaint. The CBP no longer allowed her to return to France and instead began processing her for quick removal by US immigration and customs enforcement.
Ice sent Petroba to a processing center in Vermont and to Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana, where he was detained for three months. She is not facing civil or criminal charges.
Petrova’s case will be filed in the US District Court in Vermont, where Reese will preside over the Supreme Court.
Who will support Kseniia Petrova?
Seventeen U.S. senators sent homeland security seconds. Kristi Noem March letter urges the ice to release Petrova while her asylum case is pending.
“With no evidence that Petrova is a risk or risk to the community, we strongly encourage you to reconsider ICE’s recent decision to grant Petrova parole and not take the movement’s discretion within your authority to release her within your authority to release her, in order to release her while the asylum case is pending,” they said in a letter on March 31.
“In addition, I am deeply concerned about the possibility that Petrova might face persecution if deported to Russia,” the senator said.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell filed an affidavit in support of Petrova on May 12, saying the administration’s well-known detention of international students poses a threat to the country’s global leadership in the state’s economy and scientific innovation.
“The actions of the Trump administration, targeting international students and academics, send a frightening message to talented students and academics around the world,” he wrote.
