The transformation of the atmosphere
On the evening of February 16, Ms. Petrova's flight back from Paris landed in Boston. As the plane sat on the apron, she texted back and forth with Dr. Peshkin, trying to confirm how she should handle the package in customs. But by then, the passengers had already brought it up on the plane, he said, and Ms. Petrova shortened the conversation.
Ms. Petrova said that at first, her reentry felt normal. Under passport control, an official checked Harvard-sponsored J-1 visa and identified it as a biomedical researcher. The officer stamped her passport and admitted that she had gone to the country.
Then, as she advanced towards her baggage claim, a Border Patrol officer approached her and asked for a search of her suitcase. All she could think was that the embryo samples inside would be destroyed. RNA is prone to degradation. She explained that she didn't know the rules. The officer was polite and told her she would be allowed to leave.
Ms. Petrova said, then another officer entered the room and the tone of the conversation changed. The official asked detailed questions about the samples, Ms. Petrova's work history and her travels in Europe. The official then told Ms. Petrova that she was canceling her visa and asked if she was afraid of being deported to Russia.
“Yes, I'm afraid to go back to Russia,” she said, with her lawyer providing the Department of Homeland Security's transcript. “I'm afraid the Russian Federation will kill me because they protested them.”
Ms. Petrova's lawyer Greg Romanovsky said Customs and Border Protection surpassed its power by canceling visas. He admitted she had violated customs regulations but said it was a minor offence, confiscated and fined.
Romanovsky said that to cancel the visa, the agent needs to determine the reason to exclude her. “There are many unacceptable reasons, but violating customs rules is certainly not one of them,” he said.
Lucas Guttentag, a professor at Stanford Law School, reviewed the documents in the case and agreed. He said Ms. Petrova had legally been admitted to the United States, and then “the government itself created what is called improper immigration status, which is the basis for her detention.”
“It is wrong to get anyone to accept this process, and the case is both shocking and shocking,” Guttentag said, who served as a senior Justice Department adviser to President Biden and senior adviser to the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration.
A DHS spokesman asked why Ms. Petrova's visa was cancelled, saying that canine examinations found that peteris' dishes and vials of embryonic stem cells were found in luggage without proper permits.
“The person was legally detained when he lied to federal officials about loading biological matter into the country,” the spokesman said. “The news on the phone showed that she planned to smuggle materials through customs without an announcement.
Since Mr. Trump took office, Border Patrol agents have become an undocumented immigrant when she canceled Ms. Petrova’s visa. She was taken to the Ridgewood Detention Center, awaiting a hearing, where she will file an asylum case with an immigration judge.
“If she wins, she will not be deported,” said Mr. Romanovsky. “If she loses, she will be deported to Russia.”
He also filed a petition for her release in federal court and urged the ICE to release her on parole. “I'm basically for pity,” he said. “In different circumstances, I think she's gone out a long time ago.”
Ms. Petrova spent a row of bed dormitories in the last month. It was cold and at night, these women sometimes shivered under thin blankets. Once a day, they can be outside for an hour. She said breakfast comes at different times, sometimes the earliest is the hardest, and it is constant noise. The psychiatrist at the facility gave her earplugs to help her fall asleep.
She couldn't work, she observed the women around her. She said about half of Latinos crossed the border for economic reasons. The second group consists of Asians and citizens from former Soviet countries who cross the border legally and seek political asylum.
She said none of them should be held under these conditions. “I don't think it's possible, in this case,” she said. “Even the immigrants here, they have to have some rights. But, no one seems to really care about our rights here.”
It challenges the American viewpoint she formed in Russia. “This is not the kind of America I knew before,” she said.
