Trump's treatment of 2 Russian women emphasizes a faulty immigration policy

It is without question that Karelina is not a criminal and deserves to be back in Los Angeles, where she works as an aesthetic. But her much meeting with Trump makes me ask why the administration is not equally excited about the freedom another Mrs. the Russian descent – one with a strikingly similar name.

Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist from Harvard University, has been in an immigration prison in Louisiana for more than two months. And like Karelina, she is young (both women are in their early 30s) and reported reportedly against the invasion of Ukraine by Russia to Ukraine. In fact, both women fell to the Russian authorities within days: Karelina donated their donation on February 24, 2022 on the day when Russia began his full invasion; On February 27, Petrova called for the elevation of Russian President Vladimir Putin on her Facebook page and was arrested before she managed to flee to the country of Georgia and then to the United States.

The most important thing is that no crime under US law has committed. But while Trump accepted Karelina, his government punished Petrova, a Russian citizen who is busy in Harvard with a J-1 visa.

On February 16, Petrova was arrested for Boston on the return of Paris and later put in custody in Mount and then in Louisiana for immigration and customs authorities. Your alleged crime? It was not that “rehearsals of frog bryos, which she had worn from France at the request of her boss in Harvard, she did not reveal that she had” worn samples of frog bryos “and was supposedly above her, reported the New York Times. Petrova denied in a declaration of false information submitted by her legal team and took responsibility for the non -check of the requirements for customs documents.

To the extent that the embryos had to be disclosed -something your legal team questioned -such a lack of disclosure is usually remedied by a fine of 500 US dollars. Instead, the Trump administration put it in deportation procedures; Petrova immediately claimed asylum for her and noticed that if she was deported to Russia, she was exposed to retaliation for her political views.

Since then, Petrova's immigration case has moved slowly by 2026 without the senior lawyer Gregory Romanovsky expected. In the meantime, however, she submitted a federal action in Vermont to describe her immediate release and what Romanovsky describes as a “critical” hearing next week.

And their lawyers believe that they have strong evidence and arguments for their release, including:

An explanation from the laboratory manager in Harvard, a scientist in the 80s, who confirms that he would not have occurred to explain the embryos;

An expert declaration by a former customs and border patrol officials, which confirms that frogemryons would not count on “biological material” according to applicable regulations that would have to be revealed; And

The existing immigration law and the present regulations, which determine that the disclosure of customs – even if they are deliberately, that Petrova do not maintain, are not a sufficient basis for revoking a visa.

Nevertheless, this raises the question of why Petrova was Really Imprisoned, especially since a loss before the Federal Supreme Court in the immigration prison would mean for many more months. Romanovsky The view that the Trump government uses immigration as a means to punish alleged or perceived misconduct.

“The goal,” he claimed, “be it to prevent people from coming to this country” and cause them to go alone.

The fact that the Trump government cannot appreciate the similarities between Petrova and Karelina underlines what we see in the whole country: a chaotic and apparently careless approach to immigration that our nation only weakens.