Earlier this year, Harvard scientist Kseniia Petrova landed at Boston Logan Airport with samples of frog embryos in her luggage. Those samples cost Petrova her visa and kickstarted an asylum claim that landed her in an ICE detention facility in Louisiana. WSJ’s Michelle Hackman explains that Petrova’s case represents an aggressive shift in the Trump administration’s stance towards immigrants with visas. Jessica Mendoza hosts. Further Listening: -Trump 2.0: Trade Wars and Deportation Battles -A New Phase in Trump’s Immigration Fight Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is Kseniia Petrova and what happened to her at the airport?
Hi. Yes, hello. Ksenia, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us again. My name is Jess. Appreciate you doing this. It sounds like it's pretty crazy over there. How are you?
Yeah, hello. Hello, hello. I'm fine. I mean, as much as I can.
That's Ksenia Petrova. She's a scientist at Harvard Medical School, studying how cells in the human body rejuvenate themselves. But right now, Ksenia is trapped. Instead of calling from her lab in Massachusetts, she's calling from an immigration detention center in Louisiana.
We just had to have lunch, so we just came back to our dorm. A lot of noise and things are going.
You said you're in your dorm? I see a lot of people behind you.
I spoke with Ksenia over a video call. She was in a big room made of metal and concrete, filled with rows of bunk beds. Behind Ksenia, I could just make out dozens of people milling around, all seeming to wear the same khaki jumpsuit.
But despite her surroundings, Ksenia seemed in good spirits, laughing nervously. I asked her what life was like in detention.
The food is absolutely terrible. It's very, very unhealthy. It's like a really bad quality McDonald's food. The bed is attached to the floor, of course. Every furniture here is screwed to the floor. In the corner, we have our toilets, like bath space. There are toilets and shower. And the toilets are half open, so if you're standing there, half of you will be visible. Wow.
It's like a life with 90 people in the same room. It's very noisy all the time. It's really hard to concentrate. It's hard to sleep sometimes. It's hard to think. You can't belong to yourself. You're always... Somebody is watching you.
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Chapter 2: What is Kseniia's scientific work and background?
It's Tuesday, April 22nd. Coming up on the show, how a customs dispute landed a world-class scientist in ICE detention.
The only thing which I really enjoy in my life is science and this is what I was dedicated to and I was spending almost all my time in the lab and I was interested in biology and I would like to become a good scientist someday. Not yet, but this is what I was trying to achieve.
Ksenia Petrova is 30 years old. She was born in Russia, a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. She's a specialist in bioinformatics, a discipline that uses both computers and math to analyze biological data. That skill set can be hard to come by in the U.S. And in 2023, Ksenia was offered a job at Harvard Medical School in a lab in the systems biology department.
Ksenia moved to the US on a J-1 visa, which allows foreigners to conduct research here. And Ksenia got to work studying frog cells. Xenopus is a type of frog native to sub-Saharan Africa. Their cells are very useful to scientists like Ksenia. Their similarity to human cells make them perfect specimens for studying diseases, genes, and aging.
but we also were thinking to use it as a model to study aging and to study germ cell development. So this was also our point of interest.
For the past two years, Ksenia has been devoted to her work at the lab in Boston. Her boss said that he'd have to beg her to go home after work. But earlier this year, in February, Ksenia decided to take a break by going to Paris to see a concert.
I was maybe working too much and I realized that my brain is very tired and they can't. And I decided to go on vacation and... I went to see a very beautiful pianist who was performing in Paris and I enjoyed so much. After this concert I really don't want to go to any other concerts because they won't be as good as this concert was.
Even on vacation, Ksenia couldn't help getting some work done. Her boss at Harvard had arranged for Ksenia to visit a lab in Paris. The lab had figured out a new way to prepare Xenopus frog embryos for study. Ksenia hoped she could learn this new technique and maybe even bring back some samples to Boston.
sometimes very, very important to know exactly how the procedure is made by the person who is making it. And I learned a lot, and I was very, very grateful to them. And we prepared very beautiful samples, which I was hoping to bring back.
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Chapter 3: How did Kseniia's frog embryo samples lead to visa cancellation?
Chapter 4: What are the conditions like in ICE detention?
I spoke with Ksenia over a video call. She was in a big room made of metal and concrete, filled with rows of bunk beds. Behind Ksenia, I could just make out dozens of people milling around, all seeming to wear the same khaki jumpsuit.
But despite her surroundings, Ksenia seemed in good spirits, laughing nervously. I asked her what life was like in detention.
The food is absolutely terrible. It's very, very unhealthy. It's like a really bad quality McDonald's food. The bed is attached to the floor, of course. Every furniture here is screwed to the floor. In the corner, we have our toilets, like bath space. There are toilets and shower. And the toilets are half open, so if you're standing there, half of you will be visible. Wow.
It's like a life with 90 people in the same room. It's very noisy all the time. It's really hard to concentrate. It's hard to sleep sometimes. It's hard to think. You can't belong to yourself. You're always... Somebody is watching you.
For the last two months, Ksenia has been in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. And what led her there was something that normally would have resulted in a fine. Instead, her work visa was taken away, she was detained, and now Ksenia's future is in the hands of an immigration court. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza.
It's Tuesday, April 22nd. Coming up on the show, how a customs dispute landed a world-class scientist in ICE detention.
The only thing which I really enjoy in my life is science and this is what I was dedicated to and I was spending almost all my time in the lab and I was interested in biology and I would like to become a good scientist someday. Not yet, but this is what I was trying to achieve.
Ksenia Petrova is 30 years old. She was born in Russia, a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. She's a specialist in bioinformatics, a discipline that uses both computers and math to analyze biological data. That skill set can be hard to come by in the U.S. And in 2023, Ksenia was offered a job at Harvard Medical School in a lab in the systems biology department.
Ksenia moved to the US on a J-1 visa, which allows foreigners to conduct research here. And Ksenia got to work studying frog cells. Xenopus is a type of frog native to sub-Saharan Africa. Their cells are very useful to scientists like Ksenia. Their similarity to human cells make them perfect specimens for studying diseases, genes, and aging.
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Chapter 5: Why does Michelle Hackman say Kseniia's case is significant?
After the break, what's next for Ksenia's case?
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Chapter 6: What are the allegations from the Department of Homeland Security?
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Chapter 7: Why is it dangerous for Kseniia if the Russian government is notified?
Chapter 8: What is Kseniia’s current immigration status and next steps?
That's basically right. Yeah, an asylum claim can be as simple as, you can't send me home, I will be targeted. You have to prove it, of course, but that's how it starts.
And after that, she said to me that I will be passed to ICE. And they put me in a cell in the airport for one night. And they didn't tell me anything about what will happen to me, what is going on. They didn't tell anybody. So after this, I was transferred to the detention in Louisiana. And I'm here almost two months. So this is how it happened.
After the break, what's next for Ksenia's case?
Hey, wouldn't it be great if life came with remote control? You know, you could hit pause when you needed to or hit rewind like that time you knocked down that wasp's nest. Well, life doesn't always give you time to change the outcome, but prediabetes does. With early diagnosis and a few healthy changes, you can stop prediabetes before it leads to type 2 diabetes.
To learn your risk, take the one-minute test today at doihaveprediabetes.org. Brought to you by the Ad Council and its prediabetes awareness partners.
While Ksenia is in detention, she's getting to know her fellow detainees. They spend their time playing chess and talking about their asylum cases.
Some of Ksenia's new friends are also Russian. She told me about them as a guard shouted in the background. So my closest friends have a similar story. They came from Russia. There is no way for them to go to Russia back because they are afraid to be persecuted there. And they decided to come to the border and to come to CBP, saying that they are seeking for political asylum.
And there they were arrested. And after that, they were transferred to different detentions. Then they were transferred again and again. And now they are all here.
Well, I'm glad you at least have friends while you're there. Yes.
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