Harvard researcher held in Louisiana awaits judge's decision on deportation to Russia

BATON ROUGE, La. — Kseniia Petrova never imagined she would face significant immigration issues, but it has been 68 days since she was detained at the Boston airport while traveling with undeclared frog embryo samples.

The Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher associate was in the United States legally. But she finds herself thrust into a detention system that has been in the national spotlight as President Donald Trump pursues his promise of mass deportations.

Petrova, 30, was sent to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana where she continues to await a judge's decision on whether she will be deported to Russia, where she fears she will be imprisoned or worse.

The Department of Homeland Security accuses Petrova of knowingly breaking the law, while friends and advocates are calling for her release and saying the incident was an infraction that normally would be punishable by a fine.

As Petrova spends days in a crowded dormitory awaiting her fate, her colleagues say their research, including using a one-of-a-kind cancer-detecting microscope, will be delayed or moot without the scientist who they say plays a critical role.

Difficult conditions in detention center

''The truth is on my side,'' said Petrova, who spoke with The Associated Press on Friday in a video call from the Louisiana ICE detention center in Monroe. She held an outdated phone to one ear and pressed her fingers against the other trying to block out muffled background conversations in various languages.

Behind Petrova were steel bunkbeds, a few tables, two microwaves and a television showing CNN.

''Almost all our life is happening in this dorm,'' Petrova said.

Dozens of woman walked around Petrova. She said many were Latin Americans, some who crossed the border illegally. Other immigrants had been in the country for a long time and were detained after missing a check-in with ICE. There are others who Petrova said were in the facility "without any sense or any reason, really any point" about why they were detained.

Petrova is not aware of any other scientists in the dorm housing 99 women.

Petrova described the facility's food as "absolutely terrible", mainly carbohydrates without fruits or vegetables. Detainees typically get an hour outside unless it's raining, a regular occurrence this time of year in the Bayou State.

People spend the night shivering because the dorm is cold, the showers are painfully hot, privacy is absent and the constant noise makes it ''hard to live," she said.

Frog embryos and customs

A couple months earlier, Petrova had been vacationing in France, where she stopped at a lab specializing in splicing superfine sections of a frog embryos and obtained a package of samples to be used for research.

As she passed through a customs checkpoint in Boston's Logan Airport, Petrova was questioned about the samples. Petrova told the AP she didn't realize the items needed to be declared and was not trying to sneak in anything. After an interrogation, Petrova was told her visa was being cancelled.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on X that Petrova was detained after ''lying to federal officers about carrying substances into the country.'' They allege messages on her phone ''revealed she planned to smuggle the materials through customs without declaring them."

Petrova's boss and mentor, Leon Peshkin, said the samples were not in any way dangerous or biohazardous.

''I don't think she did anything wrong,'' Peshkin told the AP. ''But even if she did, at most she should have gotten a warning or maybe a fine of up to $500.''

Harvard said in a statement that the university ''continues to monitor the situation.''

An ‘irreplaceable' mind

Petrova has a very special scientific skill set required by the work, said Peshkin, a principal research scientist at Harvard's Department of Systems Biology who explained Petrova is assisting an investigation into the earliest stages of cell division using frog embryos.

''She has made herself crucial to pretty much every project that's going on in the lab. I don't know how we're gonna continue without her,'' Peshkin said.

Will Trim, a postdoctoral fellow and Petrova's roommate, backed the description of her scientific value. He has worked with her as she writes computer scripts to read images from a unique microscope that Trim believes has the potential to make breakthroughs in cancer detection.

''Some very important research will end if she's gone," Trim said.

The impact on the science community

Trim boarded a flight to Louisiana on Friday to visit Petrova, who is allotted one visitor a week.

The facility is one of nine immigration detention centers in the state, all located in the rural north or western parts of the state. Many detainees have complained of isolation as they are held long distances from their families and attorneys.

Louisiana has been at the center of other high-profile immigration cases, including the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University activist.

Like many others in detention, Petrova left her country to avoid conflict or possible political repression. She fled after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, marking the start of a bloody three-year war.

"If I go back, I am afraid I will be imprisoned because of my political position and my position against war,'' Petrova said.

A Louisiana immigration judge earlier this week found the federal government's case to be legally insufficient and gave ICE a week to submit stronger evidence.

Petrova's case is being closely watched by the scientific community, with some fearing it could impact recruiting and retaining foreign scientists at U.S. universities.

''I think that there is a wrong perception that foreign scientists are somehow privileged to be in the United States. I feel it's the opposite,'' Peshkin said. ''Foreign scientists come here with gifts ... they are highly skilled experts who are in demand. They enrich the American scientific community.''