Russian-Born Researcher Kseniia Petrova Detained Due to Undeclared Frog Embryo Samples

Russian-born Kseniia Petrova, a research associate at Harvard Medical School on a J-1 scholar visa since May 2023, was detained by Customs and Border Protection for having undeclared preserved frog embryo samples in her luggage when she returned from work-related travel to France.

She passed through immigration control at Boston’s Logan Airport. While waiting for her luggage, two CBP officers took her to a separate room where they inspected her luggage and searched her phone. In her luggage, the officers found a sample of frog embryos from her research. The samples were legal to import, but she was supposed to declare them on her customs declaration form.

Her lawyer Gregory Romanovsky said:

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. 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.

Romanovsky went on to say that in such a situation, CBP should impose two penalties for typical customs violations: forfeiture of the item, in this instance the sample, and a fine that is usually about $500.

Instead, CBP took the extraordinary step of canceling her visa.  The Immigration and Nationality Act Section 212 allows entry into the USA to be denied for any of several reasons. CBP can cancel a visa, but only when they have an appropriate reason. They didn’t have such a reason.

CBP gave her two options:

• She could withdraw her application to enter the USA, leave voluntarily, then go to an embassy in another country to apply for a visa to re-enter the USA.
• CBP could order expedited removal (deportation) and put her on a plane back to Paris. After being subject to a deportation order, she would be barred from returning to the USA for at least five years.

Petrova withdrew her application to enter the USA. She told CBP, “Please put me back on the plane to France, I’m going to do what you tell me to do. I’m going to apply for a visa. I want to do the right thing.” She held a valid Schengen visa and could legally return there.

CBP accepted that, then asked whether she wanted them to notify the Russian government or the Russian Consulate.

She told them not to notify the Consulate. “I cannot go to Russia. I will be persecuted there.” She was arrested there in 2022 for her protests against the war in Ukraine. If she returns to Russia, she is likely to face a significant prison sentence there.

CBP took her into custody and transferred her to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana, where she would be in the jurisdiction of a federal appeals court that goes along with Donald Trump’s hostility toward immigrants.

Her principal investigator at Harvard provided letters in support of Petrova from Nobel Prize winners.

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