In Law360, White Collar Crime and Government Investigations Practice Co-Chairs Anthony Mirenda and Adam Safwat discussed the recent case of two NIH virologists recently detained upon their return to the United States from a trip to the Republic of Congo for not declaring biological materials to customs officials.

“We are seeing in recent years more scrutiny on researchers, and more scrutiny on researchers transiting borders with material,” said Mirenda.

Safwat suggested one possible reason for the increased scrutiny: “One of the things that may be happening is that some of these individuals are coming in on visas, and people with visas are receiving more border scrutiny than they have in the past.” 

Safwat also noted that although scrutiny of foreign researchers isn’t new, sharing “this is a little bit of a different twist on that,” as scrutiny had traditionally been on researchers leaving the United States with scientific material rather than attempting to bring it into the country.

Mirenda also stressed the importance of universities and other research institutions having clear travel protocols that comply with federal regulations in light of this incident: “The consequences of not paying enough attention can be individually catastrophic.”

Read the full article in Law360.