Judge orders Trump to release imprisoned Harvard University researcher

A Russian-born scientific researcher for Harvard University jailed by the Trump administration cannot have her visa revoked, ruled a judge on Wednesday.

According to The New York Times, Kseniia Petrova was granted bail by Vermont-based U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss, who found that “there does not seem to be either a factual or legal basis for the immigration officer’s actions” in the case against her.

Petrova, who fears persecution in her home country if sent back due to her outspoken stance against the invasion of Ukraine, was detained by customs officers while trying to enter the country with frog embryos important to her department's research that had been requested by her boss. The officers allegedly claimed she failed to declare biological material.

But according to Reiss, Petrova's samples were “wholly non-hazardous, non-toxic, non-living, and posed a threat to no one.” Moreover, the judge agreed that “Ms. Petrova’s life and well-being are in peril if she is deported to Russia.” Those in the country who have criticized President Vladimir Putin's war have often found themselves in a "carousel" of arrests and imprisonments on a series of allegedly trumped-up charges.

Petrova's arrest horrified fellow researchers at Harvard, who believe that her unique understanding of data could be vital to unlocking new methods for detecting early-stage cancers.

All of this comes at the same time Trump has made a scorched-earth crackdown against Harvard itself, as the school has refused to accede to his demands to change their academic and hiring policies. He has canceled billions of dollars in grants to Harvard, moved to revoke the school's tax-exempt status, and suspended Harvard's ability to teach international students.

Much of this is in active litigation, with a federal judge already having put the international student restriction on hold.