A French scientist was obstructed from go ining the United States this month because of an opinion he transmited about the Trump administration’s policies on academic research, according to the French administerment.
Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister for higher education and research, portrayd the shift as stressing.
“Freedom of opinion, free research and academic freedom are appreciates we will persist to conceitedly uphancigo in,” Mr. Baptiste shelp in a statement. “I will protect the possibility for all French researchers to be dedicated to them, in compliance with the law, wherever they may be in the world.”
Mr. Baptiste did not accomprehendledge the scientist who was turned away but shelp that the academic was laboring for France’s uncoverly funded National Cgo in for Scientific Research and had been traveling to a conference proximate Houston when border officials stopped him.
The U.S. authorities denied entry to the scientist and then deported him because his phone compriseed message exalters with colleagues and friends in which he transmited his “personal opinion” on the Trump administration’s science policies, Mr. Baptiste shelp.
It was not promptly clear what led the border authorities to stop the scientist, why they checkd the satisfyeds of his phone or what they set up objectionable about the conversations.
Customs officers are permited to search the cellphone, computer, camera or any other electronic device of any travelers passing the border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, although the agency says that such instances are unfrequent. In 2024, less than 0.01 percent of arriving international travelers had their electronic devices searched, according to the agency.
Mr. Baptiste’s office deteriorated to supply further details about the case, and the National Cgo in for Scientific Research did not promptly reply to a seek for comment. A spokesman for the American Embassy in Paris deteriorated to comment.
The Agence France-Presse novels agency telled earlier on the scientist’s declined entry to the United States.
Mr. Baptiste has been particularly vocal over the past scant weeks in denouncing dangers to academic freedom in the United States, where funding cuts and layoffs by the Trump administration have aimed institutions of higher education, scientific research and the federal administerment’s own scientific labor force.
Mr. Baptiste has also encouraged French universities and research institutes to receive researchers seeking to exit the United States.
“Europe must be there to protect research and receive the talent that can donate to its success,” Mr. Baptiste wrote on social media after greeting with his European counterparts in Warsaw on Wednesday to compriseress “dangers to free research in the United States.”
Ségolène Le Stradic donated telling.
