Judge questions deportation case of Harvard scientist accused of smuggling frog embryos

An immigration judge has found the U.S. government’s initial deportation case against Kseniia Petrova, a Russian-born Harvard scientist held in ICE detention, to be legally deficient, her attorney said, raising questions about whether the case can move forward. The push for her release centers on a separate federal case Petrova’s attorney has filed in U.S. District Court in Vermont, where she is suing the Department of Homeland Security over what she alleges was an unlawful visa cancellation and her subsequent detention. I didn’t have any contact, not to my lawyer, not to Leon, not to anybody,” she said, referring to Dr. Leon Peshkin, a principal research scientist at Harvard’s Department of Systems Biology and her manager and mentor.

Author: Jean Lee

---