A Russian scientist from Harvard Medical School has been detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to her friends and colleagues.
On Wednesday, Cora Anderson, a friend and colleague of Kseniya Petrova, shared the news of Petrova’s detention on Facebook, saying the Russian scientist arrived at Boston Logan international airport on 16 February from a trip to France when she was stopped by US authorities.
According to Anderson, authorities revoked Petrova’s visa and told her that she was to be deported to Russia. In response, Petrova said that she feared political persecution and was instead sent by authorities to a detention facility, Anderson said.
“We had no idea initially what had happened to her since she was unable to send any messages or make any calls upon detention. She was moved to a facility in Vermont at first and then Louisiana where she is now. Where she is now is a jail that has space rented by ICE and is kept in a room with over 80 other female detainees,” Anderson wrote in her Facebook post.
“Despite having lawyers and the fact she did not do anything illegal in the first place, she is still there, and we have no idea when she will be paroled (or released, however simply released is unlikely),” she added.
Speaking to the independent Russian news outlet Agentstvo, Petrova’s friend Andrei Shevtsov said that Petrova was detained after undeclared frog embryo samples were discovered in her luggage.
Another colleague of Petrova who spoke anonymously to Mediazona, another independent Russian news outlet, said that Petrova was carrying a “sizable box with several cold blocks, which was clearly impossible to hide”. Petrova’s colleague added that she may have accidentally made a mistake while filling out the US customs declaration form.
According to a LinkedIn post by Petrova from seven months ago which the independent news outlet the Insider reviewed, Petrova pointed to a 2024 study which shed light on molecular pathways that orchestrate meiotic progression in frogs.
A GoFundMe page set up by Anderson for Petrova said that the researcher was hired to work for Harvard Medical School and had entered the US on a work visa. Anderson did not specify which work visa category Petrova was under. She said that Petrova is “supported in applying for a new visa” but added that it is a “multi-month process during which she will not be able to work thus not collect a paycheck”.
Reports of Petrova’s detention come just weeks after a French scientist was denied entry in the US this month after US immigration officers searched his phone and found messages critical of Donald Trump.
Also earlier this month, Canadian citizen Jasmine Mooney was detained by US authorities and was held by ICE for two weeks before being released. In another case, a German tourist, 29-year-old tattoo artist Jessica Brösche, spent six weeks in detention including eight days in solitary confinement after she was arrested at the Mexican border on 18 February.
In recent weeks, federal authorities have detained a handful of other university students and researchers – including green card holders – who have expressed Palestinian solidarity amid Israel’s deadly war on Gaza. Earlier this week, 30-year-old Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, was detained by masked federal officials in dramatic footage that has caused widespread outrage.
Immigration officials also detained Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil – a green card holder – earlier this month in front of his pregnant wife, Noor, a US citizen. Other students detained by immigration officials include Badar Khan Suri, an Indian postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, after the Department of Homeland Security accused him of having ties to Hamas.
