NEW YORK – A US judge on Wednesday (Thursday Manila time) ordered the release of a Harvard researcher from Russia who had fled her country fearing political persecution and was targeted by the Trump administration for deportation.
Kseniia Petrova, a scientist at Harvard Medical School, had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in February at a Boston airport after she failed to declare biological samples in her luggage upon returning from a trip to Paris.
Officials told Petrova that her visa was revoked and that she would be deported back to Russia, before transporting her to an ICE detention center in Louisiana.
On May 14, she was charged on suspicion of smuggling, facing a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
But federal Judge Christina Reiss, chief judge for the US District Court of Vermont, on Wednesday ordered ICE to release Petrova before a ruling was made on the merits of her visa.
“At today’s hearing, we demonstrated that Kseniia is neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk, and does not belong in immigration detention,” Petrova’s lawyer, Greg Romanovsky, said in a statement.
Romanovsky added he was “gratified” to present at the hearing “clear and convincing evidence that Kseniia Petrova was not carrying anything dangerous or unlawful, and that customs officers at Logan International Airport had no legal authority to revoke her visa or detain her.”
Now out of ICE custody, Petrova will return to Boston for a hearing on whether she will resume detention over the smuggling charges.
Since her detention, Petrova has claimed she feared returning to Russia under risk of arrest due to participating in political protests.
