Daily Beast: Judge Frees Harvard Scientist ICE Tried to Deport to Russia

Kseniia Petrova, 30, spent four months in federal custody after returning from a vacation with frog embryo samples.

A Harvard researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos into the United States has been released on bail after spending four months in federal custody.

In February, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) apprehended Kseniia Petrova, 30, at Boston Logan International Airport after she allegedly failed to properly declare frog embryo samples she had brought from Paris.

The Russian-born scientist had her visa revoked and was held at an ICE facility in Louisiana, facing deportation to Russia, where she had previously been arrested for speaking out against the invasion of Ukraine.

“If I go back, I am afraid I will be imprisoned because of my political position and my position against war,” Petrova told the Associated Press.

A federal judge ordered her release from ICE custody in May, ruling that the immigration officers had acted unlawfully, and that neither Petrova nor the nonliving frog embryos posed a threat.

However, she remained in federal custody after prosecutors in Massachusetts charged her with one count of smuggling goods into the U.S. That case is ongoing, and she must return to court next week for a hearing.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/judge-frees-harvard-scientist-ice-tried-to-deport-to-russia

News Nation: Judge: Harvard researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos was unlawfully detained by ICE

A federal judge in Vermont on Wednesday released a Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher from immigration custody as she deals with a criminal charge of smuggling frog embryos into the United States.

Petrova, 30, is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service in Louisiana. She is expected to be brought to Massachusetts as early as Friday in preparation for a bail hearing next week on the smuggling charge, lawyers said in court.

Another loss for King Donald & his bully boys!

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/ap-us-news/ap-judge-harvard-researcher-charged-with-smuggling-frog-embryos-was-unlawfully-detained-by-ice

Fear and Loathing: Mohsen Mahdawi, almost a citizen. Almost.

Mohsen Mahdawi was arrested outside his naturalization interview in Vermont. He was on track to become a U.S. citizen. ICE decided otherwise.

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665054132830559


Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.

Fear and Loathing: Alireza Doroudi, Iranian PhD student, University of Alabama

Alireza Doroudi, an Iranian PhD student at the University of Alabama, was picked up by ICE without charge. No one will say why. He’s still gone.

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665054132830559


Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.

Fear and Loathing: Rümeysa Öztürk, Fulbright scholar, Tufts University

Rümeysa Öztürk was a Fulbright scholar at Tufts University. ICE agents in masks and hoodies grabbed her off the street, shoved her into an unmarked car, and vanished her into a Louisiana detention center. Her crime? Writing an op-ed critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665054132830559


Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.

Fear and Loathing: Kseniia Petrova, Russian scientist, Harvard Univeristy

Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist at Harvard, was deported over a technicality involving frog embryo samples. When she said she feared political persecution in Russia, they shrugged and shackled her anyway.

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665054132830559


Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.

Fear and Loathing: Momodou Taal, British-Gambian PhD student, Cornell University

Momodou Taal, a British-Gambian PhD student at Cornell, was told to surrender himself or be hunted. His activism cost him his place in the country. He left voluntarily. That’s what exile looks like now.

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665054132830559


Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.

Fear and Loathing: Jessica Brösche, German tourist

Jessica Brösche, a German tourist, spent eight days in solitary confinement for a visa mix-up. She described her experience as a “horror film.” This is what awaits people who land on the wrong day, at the wrong airport, with the wrong stamp.

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665054132830559


Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.

Fear and Loathing: Andry Hernández Romero, Venezuelan asylum seeker

Andry Hernández Romero, a Venezuelan asylum seeker, was deported for having religious tattoos that DHS claimed were gang-related. He came here to escape persecution. We handed him over to it.

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665054132830559


Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.

Fear and Loathing: Francisco García Casique, barber from Venezuela

Francisco García Casique, a barber from Venezuela, was seen in a propaganda video — chained and frog-marched into El Salvador’s mega-prison system. That’s how his family found out where he was.

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665054132830559


Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.