The administration of the US President Donald Trump plans to deport Harvard Medical School researcher Ksenia Petrova to Russia for smuggling frog embryos.
This is reported by the Harvard University student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson.
Government lawyers have said Petrova could be deported, despite the fact that it is allegedly dangerous for her — she has spoken out against Russia’s war in Ukraine. Her lawyer has previously said that returning to Russia would be “suicide” for Petrova.
The government filed criminal smuggling charges against Petrova in federal district court in Massachusetts.
In February, Ksenia Petrova was arrested by Customs and Border Protection agents at Boston Logan Airport for failing to declare frog embryos she was trying to bring into the country from France. The researcher has been held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana since then.
The woman sued the Department of Homeland Security for revoking her visa, claiming she was unaware of the requirement to declare biological material upon arrival in the United States.
In an affidavit filed to support the smuggling charges, a U Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer claims that an officer asked Petrova if she knew she was required to declare biological materials when entering the US. She allegedly replied that she wasnʼt sure.
The officer then reviewed several text messages on Petrova’s phone, in which a colleague and her lab manager asked how she planned to get the frog embryos through customs. Petrova allegedly told her manager that she had no plan.
"I wonʼt be able to swallow them," she wrote in one of the messages.
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