Overview
- U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss ruled Tuesday that CBP exceeded its legal authority when a Boston Logan officer voided Kseniia Petrova’s J-1 research exchange visa over undeclared frog embryo samples.
- The court set aside the cancellation as arbitrary and unlawful, which allows Petrova to keep living and working in the United States.
- The federal criminal case from the 2025 airport stop remains active, with smuggling and false‑statement charges scheduled for trial later this year.
- After the stop, she spent nearly four months in immigration detention in Vermont and Louisiana as officials said she lied to officers, a claim she denies.
- A U.S. magistrate judge in Massachusetts has observed that the alleged conduct would not normally trigger felony charges, feeding worries in universities about a chilling effect on foreign scientists.