A shift to the atmosphere
Ms Petrova’s return flight from Paris landed in Boston on the night of February 16th. As the plane sat on the asphalt, he wrote forward and back with Dr. Peshkin, trying to confirm how the package should handle the customs. But until then, the passengers had already deposited the plane, he said, and Ms Petrova cut the debate.
Initially, Mrs Petrova said, her readmission felt normal. At Passport Control, an officer examined the J-1 vision funded by Harvard, identifying it as a biomedical researcher. The officer sealed her passport, admitting her to the country.
Then, as she headed for the luggage claim, a border patrol employee approached her and asked to look for her suitcase. All he could think about was that fetal specimens would be destroyed. RNA is easily downgraded. He explained that he did not know the rules. The officer was kind, recalled and told her that he would be allowed to leave.
Then a different officer came to the room and the tone of the conversation changed, Ms Petrova said. This officer asked detailed questions about the samples, Ms Petrova’s work history and her trip to Europe. The employee then informed Mrs Petrova that she was canceling her visa and asked her if she was afraid to deport her to Russia.
“Yes, I am afraid to return to Russia,” she said, according to a copy of the Ministry of Home Affairs provided by her lawyer. “I am afraid that the Russian Federation will kill me for protest against them.”
Ms Petrova Power of Power, Greg Romanovsky, said that customs and border protection had overcome the power of cancellation of the view. He acknowledged that he had violated customs regulations, but said it was a small offense, punished with loss and fine.
In order to cancel her visa, Mr Romanovsky said, agents had to identify reasons for her exception. “There are many, many reasons unacceptable, but violating a customs rule is definitely not one of them,” he said.
Lucas Guttentag, a professor at Stanford Law School, reviewed documents in the case and agreed. He said that Mrs Petrova had been legally introduced into the United States and then “the government itself created the supposed inappropriate immigration status that is now the basis for its detention”.
“Submission of anyone in this process is wrong and this case is both shocking and revealing,” said Mr Guttentag, who served as a senior adviser to the Ministry of Justice under President Biden and DHS senior adviser during the Obama government.
A DHS spokesman asked why Ms Petrova’s view had been canceled, said a dog inspection had found Petri dishes and fetal stem stem cells in her luggage without proper licenses.
“The person was legally held after lies to federal officers for the transfer of biological substances to the country,” the spokesman said. “The messages on her phone revealed that she was planning to carry the materials through the customs without declaring them.
When the border patrol agent canceled Ms Petrova’s view, he became an immigrant without documents, among the thousands held since Mr Trump assumed duties. She sent to the Richwood detention center to wait for a hearing in which she will present her case of asylum in a migration judge.
“If he wins, he will not be deported,” Mr Romanovsky said. “If he loses, he will be deported to Russia.”
He has also applied for its release to the Federal Court. “Basically please mercy,” he said. “In a different environment. I think it would have been out for a long time.”
Mrs Petrova spent the last month in a dormitory with rows of bunk. It’s cold, and at night, women sometimes run under fine blankets. Once a day, they are allowed for an hour outside. Breakfast comes at different times, sometimes already from 3:30 am. The hardest thing, he said, is the constant noise. The psychiatrist of the facility gave her earplugs to help her sleep.
She cannot work, she observes the women around her. About half are Latin Americans in their 30s and 40s who crossed the border for economic reasons, he said. A second group is made up of Asians and citizens of former Soviet states, who legally crossed the border, seeking political asylum.
None of them deserves to be held under these circumstances, he said. “I thought this was impossible to be in this situation,” he said. “Even immigrants here must have some rights. But it seems that no one really cares about our rights here.”
He has questioned the view of America he formed in Russia. “This is not the kind of America I know,” he said.
