Changes in the atmosphere
Petrova's return flight from Paris landed in Boston on the evening of February 16th. As the plane sat in the tarmac, she texted back and forth with Dr. Peshkin, trying to see how the package would be handled at customs. But by then, passengers had already been removed from the plane, he said, and Petrova shortened the conversation.
At first, Petrova said that her re-entry felt normal. At Passport Control, officers looked into the J-1 visa sponsored by Harvard and identified her as a biomedical researcher. The police stamped her passport and recognized her to the state.
Then, as she headed for a package request, Border Patrol officers approached her and asked her to search her suitcase. All she could think of was that the sample of the embryo inside would be ruined. RNA deteriorates easily. She explained that she didn't know the rules. The officer was polite, she remembered and told her that she was allowed to leave.
Then another officer came into the room and the tone of the conversation changed, Petrova said. The officer asked sample detailed questions about the history of Petrova's work and travel in Europe. Authorities then told Petrova that he had cancelled his visa and asked if he was afraid of being deported to Russia.
“Yes, I'm scared to go back to Russia,” she said according to a Homeland Security Department transcript provided by her lawyer. “I'm worried that the Russian Federation will kill me by protesting them.”
Petrova's lawyer, Greg Romanovsky, said customs and border security overtook that authority by cancelling the visa. He admitted that she violated customs regulations, but said it was a small crime punishable by forfeiture and fines.
Romanovsky said that in order to cancel her visa, agents will need to identify the basis for excluding her. “There are many reasons for unacceptability, but it's certainly not one of them that violates customs regulations,” he said.
Lucas Gattentag, a professor at Stanford Law School, reviewed the case documents and agreed. He said Petrova was legally recognized by the United States, and that “the government itself created an inappropriate immigration status that is the basis for its current detention.”
“It's wrong to take this process for anyone. This incident is shocking and clear,” said Gattentag, who served as Senior Justice Department Advisor to President Biden during the Obama administration and Senior Advisor to DHS.
A DHS spokesperson asked why Petrova's visa was cancelled and said the dog's examination found Petri dishes and vials of embryonic stem cells in the package without proper permission.
“Individuals were legally detained after lying to federal officers about bringing biological materials into the country,” the spokesman said. “Her cell phone messages revealed that she plans to smuggle materials through customs without declaring them. She deliberately broke the law and took careful steps to avoid it.”
When Border Patrol agents cancelled Petrova's visa, she became an undocumented immigrant among the thousands of people since Trump took office. She was sent to the Richwood Detention Center, where she was waiting for her to present her asylum case to an immigration judge to wait for a hearing.
“If she wins, she won't be deported,” Romanovsky said. “If she loses, she will be deported to Russia.”
He also filed a petition for her release in federal court and pressed ICE to parole her. “I'm basically urging mercy,” he said. “In another environment, I think she'd come out a long time ago.”
Petrova spent last month in a dorm lined up for bunk beds. It's cold and I tremble under a thin blanket at night. You will be allowed once a day, for an hour outside. Breakfast comes at different times, but sometimes 3:30am is the most difficult thing, she said. The facility's psychiatrist gave her earplugs to help her sleep.
Unable to work, she observes the women around her. About half are Latinos in their 30s and 40s who cross borders for economic reasons, she said. The second group consists of Asians and citizens of former Soviet countries who have legally crossed borders in search of political asylum.
None of these deserves to be held under these conditions, she said. “I thought this was impossible to be in this situation,” she said. “Even the immigrants here need to have some rights, but it seems no one here really cares about our rights.”
She challenged the views of the US that she formed in Russia. “This isn't something like America I knew,” she said.
