She Worked in a Harvard Lab to Reverse Aging, Until ICE Jailed Her

The article left me with a couple questions - is cancelling a visa for not declaring something like frog embryos normal protocol? Does ICE have evidence that not declaring them was intentional? In any case, I really hope she doesn't get deported. If it was just a mistake, this seems like an abuse of power.

> Such an infraction is normally considered minor, punishable with a fine of up to $500.

I'm also wondering how you are supposed to declare something like this. They don't pass out those customs forms on flights from Europe anymore, you just go through immigration and the officer asks whatever questions they feel like. In my case the only question was "did you buy anything".

Normally, when you are leaving the baggage claim area, there are two customs corridors - green one for people who have nothing to declare, and red for people who wish to make a customs declaration.

It's hard to know exactly what happened here, but it sounds like she was confronted before she even got to that step.

> Then, as she headed toward the baggage claim, a Border Patrol officer approached her and asked to search her suitcase.

I'm sure there is something she was supposed to do if her lawyer is acknowledging she violated some regulation, I just have no idea what it would be.

Typically, the customs declaration is filled out on the airplane. This can be done through a mobile app (which most frequent travelers do), in which case, customs might have it before you've even left the plane.

If it's done on paper, this is done at the passport check, before you've picked up your checked luggage, and well before picking a customs lane.

I've certainly been randomly chosen for a screening, and when that happened, a customs agent went up to me (deliberately) shortly after I got my luggage. I forget why, but they have flags for suspicious behavior. I think it might have been because I came back with one more bag than I left with, or some intermediate destination.

There are also, in some airports, customs dogs sniffing things between luggage pickup and customs who can also flag for screens.

So none of this sounds too unusual to me, except for the final step: being shipped off to a detention center. I've never brought in anything improper, but I know people who came to the US with illicit food. The outcome was:

1) A rather serious fine

2) Being screened literally every time they passed into the US

The second was more obnoxious. Every time they came into the US for at least the next half-decade, customs would unpack their bags.