Updated April 24, 2025 at 15:07 PM ET
Fear is spreading among some foreign-born academics and scientists working in the U.S. after Russian-born scientist Kseniia Petrova, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, was detained earlier this year when returning from France and had her visa canceled.
Leon Peshkin, a research scientist at Harvard who worked closely with Petrova, told Morning Edition that some scientists he knows now fear their immigration status could be at risk as they travel for work.
"There are many people on the visas around here just depressed," Peshkin said. "People who came here to contribute are now thinking of leaving, of looking for jobs elsewhere. I think it's going to have a large negative impact when people are intimidated, scared and no longer interested to come."
Petrova, 30, was detained in February by Customs and Border Protection agents at Boston's Logan Airport. Agents found undeclared frog embryos in her suitcase, GBH reports. Petrova's attorney, Gregory Romanovsky, told NBC News that she didn't disclose the biological samples that were meant to be used in ongoing research, and wasn't familiar with how to bring them to the country.
Petrova was held in a Vermont detention facility and then transferred to Louisiana, where several international students the Trump administration is trying to deport were also sent. Romanovsky has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Vermont, arguing that a declaration issue doesn't justify detention and the government failed to follow standard protocol.
Earlier this week a Louisiana immigration judge found the federal government's case to be legally insufficient, during a preliminary hearing. The judge ruled that the Notice to Appear, the document that initiates deportation proceedings, did not meet legal standards, NBC News reports. The judge gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement one week to submit stronger evidence.
Peshkin told Morning Edition that Petrova is scared to go back to Russia, as she has publicly opposed her country's invasion of Ukraine.
CBP referred NPR to a post on X from Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland and Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, when reached for comment. McLaughlin wrote that Petrova "lied to federal officers about carrying substances into the country." She added that messages found on her phone revealed she had planned to smuggle the materials through customs without declaring them."
Peshkin spoke with NPR's A Martinez about the broader chilling effect her detention is having on international researchers, many who wonder if the U.S. is still a safe place for them to build their careers.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
A Martinez: Did she have a passion for what she was doing?
Leon Peshkin: Yes, she does. When we connected, she told me she couldn't see a way forward for herself in Russia continuing to do science. And she dreamt specifically to do the kind of science, which I was planning to do, looking at a biological system at single cell level. So she says until she got arrested, she was in paradise and she wants to come back to this paradise.
Martinez: So what is your understanding about why she was detained?
Peshkin: I think the picture is very clear. There was a slight misunderstanding at the border of what she was supposed to do with some of the samples she was bringing in. This triggered her visa being cancelled. She ended up in the country without a valid visa because of a border officer mistake and was about to be sent out of the country. They asked her, "Should we call the Russian embassy?" She is a citizen of Russia. But she said "Oh, God, no, please don't. I'm afraid to go back to Russia." And that triggered her asylum case.
Martinez: She has protested the war in Ukraine and that is a punishable offense in Russia. So I'm wondering at this point, how much is she thinking about that as a possibility?
Peshkin: All I know is that she is extremely scared of this possibility. She expects to be persecuted if she returns to Russia.
Martinez: Do you know how other researchers in the country on scholar visas are reacting to this??
Peshkin: Yes, there are many people on the visas around here just depressed. First of all, it's extremely important for a scientist to be able to travel freely. Now they would be worried every time they cross the border. It's important to travel for conferences, to see colleagues, to learn and to disseminate science. So many people wouldn't be able to normally do the work. But more than that, people who came here to contribute are now thinking of leaving, of looking for jobs elsewhere. So I think it's going to have a large negative impact when people are intimidated, scared and no longer interested to come.
Martinez: How hopeful are you that this will be resolved in a way where Kseniia gets to stay in the United States?
Peshkin: No, I'm sorry to say, but I am not very hopeful. It seems like no one understands the rules. It's not at all clear who is in charge, who makes the judgment, what is being done and why. So I think, unfortunately, the chances of her coming back are slim.
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