A Russian scientist working at Harvard Medical School has been detained and taken to an ICE facility in Louisiana, becoming the latest case of an international student or professional who has their visa revoked by the Trump administration. Compounding to her case is the fact that she could be deported after having criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Concretely, the Harvard Crimson reported that her visa was revoked because she did not properly declare frog embryos she had brought back to the country. She was detained at Boston Logan Airport on February 16.
Petrova's lawyer has contested her arrest, saying that her offense, failure to declare an object at customs, is a violation that can result in a $500 fine, not the revocation of a visa.
However, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) gave her a choice: to be sent back to France and reapply for a visa there, or be deported and prevented from entering the U.S. for five years. She chose the former option, but when she told a CBP officer she feared political persecution due to her previous criticism of Putin and a related arrest in 2022, the agent decided to detain her.
Petrova is currently at the Louisiana facility along with at least 70 inmates. If deported, she could be sent to France as she holds a visa allowing her to spend 90 days in the Schengen area over a 180-day period.
Petrova's lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky. said "she cannot return to Russia without being jailed or harmed." "It's going to be a suicide for her to go back." She is scheduled to appear before an immigration judge on May 7 in Louisiana. Her case is somewhat different to those of students whose visas have been revoked over what the Trump administration has described as "pro Hamas" stances, but speaks about its decision to swiftly expel people in the education system.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday the administration has cancelled over 300 visas, standing by a recent case captured in video where a Turkish graduate student is arrested on the street.
"We revoked her visa. Once you've lost your visa, you're no longer legally in the United States. If you come into the U.S. as a visitor and create a ruckus for us, we don't want it. We don't want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country," Rubio said in a press conference on Thursday, referring to the case of Rumeysa Ozturk, arrested on the street by ICE agents in plain clothes.
Rubio went on to say that "if you lie to us and get a visa, and then enter the United States" to participate in activities such as "vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings," their visas will be revoked.
"It's stupid to welcome people into your country that will go to your universities as visitors and say 'I'm going to start a riot, take over a library and harass people. We gave you a visa to come and study, not to become a social activist that tears up university campuses," Rubio added.
Ozturk's arrest made national headlines on Thursday as video of her arrest on the street began circulating. Her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, said she was on her way to break her Ramadan fast with friends when she was approached by law enforcement. She had a valid F-1 student visa as a doctoral student.
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