Judge: Researcher's Visa Illegally Pulled Over Embryos

A federal judge has delivered a rebuke to border officials in a case involving frog embryos and a Harvard researcher's visa. On Tuesday, US District Judge Christina Reiss ruled that Customs and Border Protection acted outside its authority when it canceled the visa of Harvard Medical School researcher Kseniia Petrova in February 2025. As the AP puts it, Reiss found CBP officials "have limited authority to cancel visas and can't do so for suspected smuggling of biological samples."

Petrova was stopped at Boston Logan International Airport after returning from a research trip to France with frog embryos that she said she planned to use in her work. Petrova did not fill out a customs declaration form for the embryos and CBP officers revoked her visa as a result. The Harvard Crimson reports they initially told her she could return to France or be deported to Russia; they pursued the latter after Petrova said she feared persecution in Russia.

Reiss called the visa cancellation "arbitrary" and "capricious," writing, "The undisputed facts reveal that Ms. Petrova's visa was impermissibly canceled because of the frog embryo samples and for no other reason." The case unfolded amid broader Trump-era scrutiny of foreign researchers and led to separate criminal charges of smuggling and making false statements; Petrova was jailed for months at an ICE detention center in Louisiana before being released and has since resumed her Harvard research. The Boston Globe reports her smuggling case is pending.