Russian-born Harvard researcher describes detention at ICE facility and deportation fears

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• Geoff Bennett:

  Kseniia Petrova, a 30-year-old Russian scientist at Harvard Medical School, has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since February. Her detention occurred when she was returning to Boston from a trip to France.

  She brought back frog embryo samples for her lab, and the government says she knowingly broke the law in failing to properly declare them. Petrova's attorney says it was a misunderstanding. A typical customs violation results in a fine, but Petrova had her visa revoked, was detained and flagged for deportation.

  She's been a vocal critic of the Russian government and its actions in Ukraine and fears persecution if deported there. Her case has raised concerns among academics and international scientists about the treatment of foreign researchers in the U.S. under the Trump administration.

  We spoke exclusively with Petrova earlier today via a videoconference call from the Louisiana facility where she's being detained.

  So let's start at the beginning. You were detained in February at Boston's Logan Airport as you were coming back from France for failing to declare frog embryo samples you had brought back as part of your scientific research. Walk us through what happened.

• Kseniia Petrova, Harvard Scientist:

  I was stopped in the language area and was questioned about the CBP officers about my samples which were in my baggage.

  After this, there were many, many questions about my samples and about my work and about what I was going to do with the samples in Harvard and what — how the samples were prepared and what for.

  After this, the CBP officer came, and she asked me the same questions once again. And after she finished her questionnaires, she told me that she is canceling my visa. And after she said me that she's canceling my visa, she asked me if I'm afraid to be deported to my home country. I said that, yes, I'm afraid.

  They sent me to ICE. I spent the night in the cell in the airport. And after the next day, they transferred me to jail in Vermont, where I spent another week. And from there, the ICE was collecting several people from the Boston area. They transferred us by plane to Louisiana detention.

  And here I'm staying for the last two months.

• Geoff Bennett:

  When you said that you were afraid of being deported back to Russia, why? What dangers do you think you might face there?

• Kseniia Petrova:

  The current situation in Russia is absolutely terrible. It's really hard to explain to somebody who has never been to Russia, but Putin is an absolute autocrat.

  And there is not any freedom of speech in Russia. You can't say anything against the government. You can't say anything against the war. And I wasn't hiding before I fled Russia and was arrested once. And especially now, after my case became so well-known, and my position is very well-known, I am afraid that, if I come to Russia, I will be arrested, because we have in Russia special law.

  If you say something against current war, you will be imprisoned, and you can be imprisoned for 15 years.

• Geoff Bennett:

  DHS officials accused you of lying to them when you were returning from France.

  The statement reads this way: "The individual was lawfully detained after lying to federal officials about carrying substances into the country. A subsequent canine inspection uncovered undeclared petri dishes, containers of unknown substances and loose vials of embryonic frog cells all without proper permits. Messages found on her cell phone revealed she planned to smuggle the materials through customs without declaring them. She knowingly broke the law and took deliberate steps to evade it."

  Is any of that consistent with what to be true?

• Kseniia Petrova:

  Yes, I don't agree with this statement at all.

  It's all curved in some very, very strange way. I saw this situation from a different point of view. I wasn't lying to anybody. I didn't want to smuggle any samples. I was answering all the questions of officers honestly. They were asking me what the samples, how they were made and what they were dedicated to.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The immigration detention facility where you're being held right now in Louisiana, what are the conditions like?

• Kseniia Petrova:

  It's 90 women in one room. And the room is, of course, not supposed to keep 90 women.

  We have — almost all the space of the room is occupied by beds, which are staying really very close to each other. There is not any privacy here. Our bathroom space with shower and toilets is also in our room. It is always very cold inside. They're keeping temperature low.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Your team, as I understand it, developed a one-of-a-kind cancer-detecting microscope. What does your detention mean for that potentially groundbreaking research?

• Kseniia Petrova:

  A lot of things in the lab were dependent on me.

  And I was taught to use specific techniques we were using constantly in our experiments. And nobody else was taught to use them. And this is currently a big problem for my lab, because they can't really proceed with further experiments.

  Obviously, there is an immigration crisis happening in America. And, of course, during the crisis, sometimes, it's hard to find the right solution right away. That's why I think I'm here and that's why a lot of other people who, of course, shouldn't be here at all, shouldn't be deported from America are deported.

  But I'm hoping that the more attention this problem is given from the public and from society, I think the quicker it will be — find some solution to this.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Kseniia Petrova, thanks again for speaking with me this evening. I appreciate it.

• Kseniia Petrova:

  Thank you.

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