How Frog Embryos Landed a Scientist in ICE Detention

Summary

The Journal: How Frog Embryos Landed a Scientist in ICE Detention

Host: The Wall Street Journal & Gimlet
Published by: Spotify and The Wall Street Journal
Release Date: April 22, 2025
Hosts: Kate Linebaugh, Ryan Knutson, and Jessica Mendoza

Introduction

In this gripping episode of The Journal, hosted by Jessica Mendoza, listeners delve into the unnerving story of Ksenia Petrova, a distinguished scientist whose pursuit of knowledge led her into the harsh reality of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention. This comprehensive summary captures the key moments, discussions, and insights from the episode, providing a detailed overview for those who haven't listened.

Background: Meet Ksenia Petrova

Ksenia Petrova, a 30-year-old scientist originally from Russia, is a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Specializing in bioinformatics—a field that merges biology, computer science, and mathematics—Ksenia's expertise was highly sought after in the United States. In 2023, she secured a J1 visa to work at Harvard Medical School's Systems Biology department, focusing on groundbreaking research involving Xenopus frog embryos.

Ksenia Petrova (04:00): "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."

The Incident: From Lab to Detention

Ksenia's promising career took an unexpected turn during a trip to Paris in February 2025. While there to learn a new technique for preparing Xenopus embryos, she inadvertently became entangled in a customs dispute that would alter her life.

After attending a concert and engaging in work-related activities at a Parisian lab, Ksenia attempted to return to Boston with valuable frog embryo samples in her luggage. Upon arrival at Logan Airport, Boston, her luggage was inspected by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers.

Ksenia Petrova (07:28): "They were looking through my bag, and they took out the samples. And they were asking me all the questions about the samples. What are they from? What kind of species are these animals? What are they for?"

Initially, the officers were polite and inquisitive, but the situation escalated when a second, more aggressive officer took over the inspection, leading to the revocation of Ksenia's visa.

Ksenia Petrova (08:28): "She didn't tell me her name, and what is her job and occupation. She just again started asking me the same questions and other questions, many, many questions, not in very polite form. And after this investigation, which she made, she told me that my visa is canceled."

Life in ICE Detention

Following the visa revocation, Ksenia was detained by ICE and transferred to a detention center in Louisiana. The conditions described by Ksenia paint a bleak picture of her daily life behind bars:

Ksenia Petrova (01:37): "The food is absolutely terrible. It's very, very unhealthy. It's like really bad quality McDonald's food."

The detention center is overcrowded, with approximately 90 individuals sharing a single large room. The environment is noisy, making concentration and sleep difficult, and the constant surveillance fosters a sense of unease among detainees.

Ksenia Petrova (02:33): "It's like 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."

Legal Proceedings and Asylum Claim

Ksenia's detention marks a significant escalation from what, under normal circumstances, would be a minor legal issue—typically resulting in a $500 fine. Immigration lawyer Michelle Hackman highlights the disproportionate response in Ksenia's case:

Michelle Hackman (09:08): "Under the law, what she did should result in a $500 fine."

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) alleged that Ksenia knowingly violated immigration laws, citing messages on her phone as evidence. However, both Ksenia and her lawyer deny these allegations. When questioned about notifying the Russian government—a suggestion made by ICE officers—Ksenia expressed fear due to her past political involvement in Russia.

Michelle Hackman (10:30): "That was the point where she said, oh, my gosh, please don't do that. You know, it's not safe for me in Russia."

Ksenia's plea of fear-based deportation triggered an asylum claim, setting her on a legal path fraught with uncertainty. Her first appearance before an immigration judge occurred after two months in custody, and her future remains uncertain as she awaits the outcome of her asylum case.

Ksenia Petrova (17:13): "And after that, she said 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."

Broader Context: Immigration Policies and Their Impact

Michelle Hackman provides insight into the wider implications of Ksenia's case, noting a trend of increased detentions for minor immigration violations:

Michelle Hackman (14:31): "There are a lot of cases of people being stopped coming into the country at airports and at land borders... now it's like a maximum. You know, once there's even a tiny problem, you are in detention or you're being deported as fast as possible."

This shift reflects the Trump administration's stringent immigration stance, emphasizing rapid detentions and deportations, even for lawful visa holders facing minor infractions. The scientific community, among others, feels the chilling effect of these policies, with professionals like Ksenia fearing that unintentional mistakes could jeopardize their careers and lives.

Michelle Hackman (15:41): "Sent shockwaves through the scientific community... People are terrified. I mean, people feel like anything they do that's wrong, even inadvertently, could be held against them."

Personal Struggles and Uncertainty

Beyond the legal battles, Ksenia grapples with personal fears about her future and safety. Her experiences reflect a profound sense of not belonging and fear of hostile environments both in the US and her homeland.

Ksenia Petrova (18:18): "So if I will be sent back to Russia. I'm also worried that I will be arrested and imprisoned because of my political opinion... because there's no judges there, there is no court, just President Putin and his madness."

Additionally, Ksenia expresses disillusionment with the US, feeling unwelcome and unsafe despite seeking refuge.

Ksenia Petrova (19:01): "I mean, of course, it makes me afraid, feeling like I'm not really welcome here, feeling that everything can happen to me and America is not really interested to help me."

Conclusion

Ksenia Petrova's story is a poignant example of the complex and often harsh realities faced by immigrants and visa holders in the United States. Her journey from a respected scientist to an ICE detainee underscores the profound personal and professional risks associated with stringent immigration policies. As Ksenia awaits the outcome of her asylum case, her narrative serves as a testament to the human cost of bureaucratic rigidity and the fragile intersection of science, politics, and immigration law.

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Transcript

[Jessica Mendoza]

Hi.

[Ksenia Petrova]

Yes. Hello, Ksenia.

[Jessica Mendoza]

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?

[Ksenia Petrova]

Yeah. Hello. Hello. Hello. I'm fine. I mean, as much as I can.

[Jessica Mendoza]

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.

[Ksenia Petrova]

We just had to have lunch, so we just take him back to our dorm. A lot of noise and things are going.

[Jessica Mendoza]

You said you're in your dorm. See a lot of people behind you.

[Ksenia Petrova]

Yes. Oh, yeah. Okay. You can see. So this is the room where all our life is currently happening. So it's a big, big room. You can see only part of it. And I can if I remove my face.

[Jessica Mendoza]

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.

[Ksenia Petrova]

The food is absolutely terrible. It's very, very unhealthy. It's like really bad quality McDonald's food. The best. 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 are standing there, half of you will be visible.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Wow.

[Ksenia Petrova]

It's like 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 always. Somebody is watching you.

[Jessica Mendoza]

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. Foreign.

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[Ksenia Petrova]

The only thing which I really enjoy in my 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.

[Jessica Mendoza]

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 US 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 J1 visa, which allows foreigners to conduct research here. And Ksenia got to work studying frog cells.

[Ksenia Petrova]

A project which was called Atlas of Xianopus. Xianopus is a model organism for studying biology and for studying.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Cenopus 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.

[Ksenia Petrova]

We also are thinking to use it as a model to study aging and to study ger cell development. So this was our also point of interest.

[Jessica Mendoza]

For the past two years, Kassenia 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.

[Ksenia Petrova]

I was maybe working too much and I realized that my brain is very tired and they can't. And I decided to go to vacation and I went to see a very beautiful pianist who was performing in Paris and they 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 these concerts was.

[Jessica Mendoza]

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.

[Ksenia Petrova]

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.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Right.

[Ksenia Petrova]

But it didn't happen.

[Jessica Mendoza]

At the end of her trip, Ksenia packed those samples into her luggage, and she headed for Boston, Logan Airport, frog embryos in tow. When she landed in the U.S. ksenia went through passport control, showed her visa, and was admitted into the country. And then she went to pick up her bags.

[Ksenia Petrova]

When I went to this luggage space, the man in uniform came to me, asked if my name is Khseni Petrova. I said, yes, it's me. And he said, he asked if I can go with him to search through my luggage.

[Jessica Mendoza]

The officer from Customs and Border Protection led Ksenia to another room to inspect her luggage.

[Ksenia Petrova]

And they were looking through my bag, and they took out the samples. And they were asking me all the questions about the samples. What are they from? What kind of species are these animals? What are they for? And I was answering all the questions, and the officers were very polite. They were trying really, to figure out what's going and why I brought the samples.

[Jessica Mendoza]

As she was being questioned, Ksenia says another customs officer came in and took over her luggage inspection. That was when things took a turn.

[Ksenia Petrova]

She was wearing uniform. She didn't tell me her name, and what is her job and occupation. She just again started asking me the same questions and other questions, many, many questions, not in very polite form. And after this investigation, which she made, she told me that my visa is canceled.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Ksenia's visa was revoked, and suddenly she was stuck in immigration limbo, all because of those frog embryos.

[Michelle Hackman]

Under the law, what she did should result in a $500 fine.

[Jessica Mendoza]

That's our colleague, Michelle Hackman. She covers immigration and has been following a recent rise in cases where visa holders end up in detention.

[Michelle Hackman]

I became obsessed with this case because in a lot of instances that I had been learning about, there seemed to be like, you know, violations that were relatively minor, which was the case here, too, but were sort of understandable. And you have this woman. She's a scientist. She's at the top of her field. And what she did was pretty minor. She made a mistake that you and I could make. But I've spoken to several lawyers about this case, and they've all made the same point, which is that this really shouldn't rise to the level of you've committed Some kind of crime.

[Jessica Mendoza]

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said Ksenia was detained after, quote, lying to federal officers about carrying substances into the country. The spokesperson referred to messages found on Ksenia's phone as evidence that she, quote, knowingly broke the law and took deliberate steps to evade it. Ksenia and her lawyer deny those allegations. After her visa was revoked, customs officers told Ksenia that she could ask for a new visa at the US Embassy back in Paris. And then they asked her a question that Michelle says is not part of the normal protocol. Would you like us to let the Russian government know that you're here, Ksenia?

[Michelle Hackman]

That was the point where she said, oh, my gosh, please don't do that. You know, it's not safe for me in Russia.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Why isn't Russia safe for Ksenia?

[Michelle Hackman]

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Ksenia got involved in politics. She started protesting, and she got arrested by the Russian authorities. And when she got out of jail, she realized that her, you know, she wasn't safe in Russia. And so she essentially fled.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Ksenia had left Russia back in 2022. She was hired by Harvard a year later. So when the customs officer said they'd alert the Russian embassy, Ksenia panicked.

[Ksenia Petrova]

She asked me if I am afraid to be deported to my home country. I said that, yes, I'm afraid to be deported to my home.

[Michelle Hackman]

And when she said that, that triggered an asylum claim.

[Jessica Mendoza]

When you say triggered an asylum claim, is that a vocal thing? You just say you can't go back to where you're from and some machinery in the government is set in motion?

[Michelle Hackman]

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.

[Ksenia Petrova]

And after that, she said 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. 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 manuscripts.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Yeah.

[Ksenia Petrova]

So this is how it happened.

[Jessica Mendoza]

After the break, what's next for Ksenia's case?

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[Jessica Mendoza]

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.

[Ksenia Petrova]

I mean, we just think to, I don't know, to keep ourselves in, I don't know, mind conditions.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Some of Ksenia's new friends are also Russian. She told me about them as a guard shouted in the background.

[Ksenia Petrova]

So my closest friends have similar story. They came from Russia. There is no way for them to go to Russia back because they afraid to be persecuted there. And they decided to come to the border and to come to CBP saying that they 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.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Well, I'm glad you at least have friends while you're there.

[Ksenia Petrova]

Yes, I mean, it's good luck and bad luck.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Ksenia and her friends are waiting to plead their cases for asylum before an immigration judge, and Ksenia is not allowed to leave detention while waiting for a court date. The policy is part of the Trump administration's harsher stance on asylum seekers and an expanded definition of who can be detained. But unlike her other friends in the Louisiana detention center, Ksenia already had a visa and her visa was revoked over the dispute. Dispute at customs. Michelle says many cases like Ksenia's are now popping up across the country.

[Michelle Hackman]

There are a lot of cases of people being stopped coming into the country at airports and at land borders. And usually there is something maybe they've done wrong, maybe they filled out their paperwork wrong or they violated their terms of their visa in some way, even if it's unintentional stuff that, you know, it's not like they're being targeted for absolutely no reason. But the consequences seem much huger in the past. You know, immigration officers at the border are given the authority to say, okay, I'm going to let you in today, but you need to come back next week and fix your paperwork. Or, you know, even in a worst case, I'm going to actually revoke your visa and I'm going to release you today, but you're going to have to come to a court date in a few weeks. And now it's like a maximum. You know, once there's even a tiny problem, you are in detention or you're being deported as fast as possible.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Have you talked to other folks on work visas or any other kind of sort of temporary visa? Many like, yeah. What have they, what are they saying? How do they feel when they hear about cases like Ksenias this case has.

[Michelle Hackman]

Sent shockwaves through the scientific community. People are freaked out by it. People are afraid to leave the country. Scientists are afraid to come to the country. People are terrified. I mean, people feel like anything they do that's wrong, even inadvertently, could be held against them. They could be thrown out of the country. There have been a lot of instances of people's phones being searched and contents of their phones being held against them, even things they've deleted off their phones. There was a case of someone recently who was literally detained at his citizenship interview. I think all of these cases, and this is totally deliberate by the administration, they're using these sort of aggressive tactics that we haven't seen so much in the past to paint a picture that if you do anything wrong or if you're here illegally, even if you are here legally, and we sort of don't like some of your speech or we don't like something you've done, you could be deported. I mean, I think part of this is that they actually want people to leave, and they're hoping that these tactics will get people to leave.

[Jessica Mendoza]

But for asylum seekers, leaving can be really complicated because Ksenia is afraid to go back to her home country. She has to see her asylum case through a process that's likely to take a very long time. And while she waits, she's stuck in detention. Today, after two months in ICE custody, Ksenia had her first appearance before an immigration judge. So you said she's awaiting the results of her asylum case. What are sort of the hypotheticals there, the outcomes?

[Michelle Hackman]

I mean, she could win her asylum case, which would mean, essentially, she's free unless the government appeals, she could lose her asylum case, in which case, you know, it's hard to say what the range of possibilities is. Theoretically, you should be able to appeal that loss all the way up through the system and then through the federal courts. But if she's in detention, the government could try to deport her in the meantime.

[Jessica Mendoza]

In other words, she could get deported while her asylum case moves through the courts. So Ksenia's fighting to be released on parole, which could protect her from deportation until her case is decided. In a post on X, an assistant secretary at DHS said that Ksenia broke the law and was lawfully detained. She added, we should know who and what is in our country. Ksenia's allies argue that she's not a threat. She's just a scientist. Ksenia, what are you worried will happen if you're sent back to Russia?

[Ksenia Petrova]

So if I will be sent back to Russia. I'm also worried that I will be arrested and imprisoned because of my political opinion, and I won't have any, any chance to get out of jail there until the regime changes or until Putin dies, because nobody is released there. There is no judges there, there is no court, there is no law, just President Putin and his madness.

[Jessica Mendoza]

And right now, Ksenia is deeply uncertain that the US Is even an option for her anymore.

[Ksenia Petrova]

I mean, of course, it makes me afraid, feeling like I'm not really welcome here, feeling that everything can happen to me and Americ is not really interested to help me. I feel less safe when I was feeling before.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Before we go, our series Trump 2.0 is back this week. So if you have any questions about what the Trump administration is doing on immigration, the economy or anything, email us and let us know. Please send a Voice Note to thejournalsj.com that's thejournalsj.com that'S all for today. Tuesday, April 22nd. The journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We're out every weekday afternoon. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.