FILE - Harvard University researcher Kseniia Petrova, 30, departs the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse after being released on bail from federal custody on June 12, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham, File)
A U.S. judge on Tuesday ruled that a customs officer improperly canceled the visa of a Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos in the U.S.
The opinion said Customs and Border Protection officers have limited authority to cancel visas and can't do so for suspected smuggling of biological samples. The cancellation of 's visa was arbitrary and capricious, U.S. District Court Judge Christina Reiss said in her written ruling.
鈥淭he undisputed facts reveal that Ms. Petrova鈥檚 visa was impermissibly canceled because of the frog embryo samples and for no other reason,鈥 Reiss wrote.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes Customs and Border Protection, didn't immediately return an email message seeking comment.
In February last year, Petrova was returning from a vacation in France, where she had stopped at a lab specializing in splicing superfine sections of frog embryos and obtained a package of samples for research. She was questioned about the samples while passing through a customs checkpoint at Boston Logan International Airport.
After an interrogation, Petrova was told her visa was being canceled.
Petrova was briefly detained by immigration officials in Vermont, where she filed a petition seeking her release. She was later sent to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana.
She told The Associated Press last year that she did not realize the samples needed to be declared and was not trying to sneak anything into the country. Petrova has been back in her Harvard lab since January after successfully petitioning a court for the right to return to work, her attorney, Gregory Romanovsky, said.
Tuesday's ruling was an important step toward 鈥渃orrecting what should never have happened in the first place,鈥 Romanovsky said in a statement.
Petrova鈥檚 case is being closely watched by the scientific community, with some fearing it could impact recruiting and retaining foreign scientists at U.S. universities.
The Associated Press
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