A change in the atmosphere
Ms. Petrova de Paris’s return flight landed in Boston on the evening of February 16. When the plane sat on the asphalted track, he made a text message forward with Dr. Peshkin, trying to confirm how he should handle the package in customs. But at that time, passengers already presented the plane, he said, and Ms. Petrova reduced the conversation.
At first, Ms. Petrova, her re -entrepreneur felt normal. At Passport Control, an officer examined the J-1 visa that Harvard had sponsored, identifying her as a biomedical researcher. The officer stamped his passport, admitting -in the country.
Then, as he headed for baggage demand, a border patrol officer approached her and asked her to look for a suitcase. All I could think was that the samples of embryos inside were ruined; RNA is easily degraded. He explained that he did not know the rules. The officer was educated, reminded and told him that he would be allowed to leave.
Then a different officer entered the room, and the tone of the conversation changed, said Ms. Petrova. This officer asked detailed questions about the samples, the history of Mrs. Petrova and his trip to Europe. The official then informed Ms. Petrova who was canceling his visa and asked if he was afraid to be deported to Russia.
« Yes, I am afraid to return to Russia, » he said, according to a transcript by the National Security Department provided by his lawyer. « I am afraid that the Russian Federation will kill me to protest them. »
Ms. Petrova’s lawyer Greg Romanovsky said that the protection of customs and borders had passed his authority by canceling his visa. She acknowledged that she had violated customs regulations, but said that it was a minor crime, punishable by confiscation and a fine.
To cancel his visa, said Mr. Romanovsky, agents needed to identify reasons to exclude it. « There are many, many reasons for inadmissibility, but violating a customs rule is certainly not one of them, » he said.
Lucas Gutentag, a professor at Stanford Law School, reviewed the documents in the case and agreed. He said Ms. Petrova had been legally admitted to the United States, and that « the government itself created the supposed improper immigration state that is now the basis of its arrest. »
« Underwater anyone in this process is wrong, and this case is at the same time shocking and revealing, » said Gutentag, who served as an advisor to the Justice Department of President Biden and DHS senior advisor during the Obama administration.
A spokesman for the DHS, asked why Ms.’s visa had been canceled. Petrova said that a canine inspection found petri dishes and embryonic stem cell roads in the suitcases without proper permits.
« The individual was legally detained after lying to the federal officers of bringing biological substances to the country, » the spokesman said. « The messages on the phone revealed that he was planning to smuggle the materials through the customs without declaring them. He broke the law and made deliberate measures to evade. »
When the border patrol agent canceled Ms. visa. Petrova, became an immigrant without documentation, among the thousands detained since Mr. Trump took office. She was sent to the Richwood detention center to wait for an audience in which she will present her case for asylum to an immigration judge.
« If he wins, he will not be deported, » Romanovsky said. « If you lose, it will be deported to Russia. »
He has also filed a request for publication in a federal court and pressed ICE to release it on probation. « I basically ask for mercy, » he said. « In a different environment, I think I would have been out of time. »
Ms. Petrova has spent the last month in a bedroom lined with rows of bunk beds. It is cold and at night women sometimes shake under thin blankets. Once a day, they are allowed for an hour outside. Breakfast arrives at different times, sometimes until 3:30, the hardest, he said, is the constant noise. The installation psychiatrist gave him ear caps to help her sleep.
Unable to work, observe the women around him. He said that around half are Latin American of his 30 and 40 years who crossed the border for economic reasons. A second group is made up of Asians and citizens of the former Soviet states, who crossed the border legally, seeking political asylum.
None of them deserve to remain in these conditions, he said. « I thought this was impossible, to be in this situation, » he said. « Even immigrants must have some rights here. But no one seems to be concerned about our rights here. »
He has challenged the vision of America that he formed in Russia. « It’s not the kind of America you previously knew, » he said.
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