France’s research minister said the scientist was traveling to Houston for a conference when his phone was searched
A French scientist was denied entry to the US this month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration, said a French minister.
“I learned with concern that a French researcher who was traveling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled,” Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister of higher education and research, said in a statement on Monday to Agence France-Presse published by Le Monde.
“This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy,” the minister added.
“Freedom of opinion, free research, and academic freedom are values that we will continue to proudly uphold. I will defend the right of all French researchers to be faithful to them, while respecting the law,” Baptiste said.
A diplomatic source told the French news agency that the incident occurred on 9 March. The scientist was on assignment for the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).
Another AFP source said that US authorities accused the French researcher of “hateful and conspiratorial messages”. He was reportedly also informed of an FBI investigation, but told that “charges were dropped” before being expelled.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The research minister, Baptiste, has been outspoken in his own criticism of the Trump administration, and Elon Musk, for making huge cuts to scientific research budgets.
On the same day that the researcher was denied entry to the US, Baptiste published a letter calling on American researchers to relocate to France. “Many well-known researchers are already questioning their future in the United States,” he wrote. “We would naturally wish to welcome a certain number of them.”
The next day, Baptiste posted a photograph of himself in a virtual meeting with a researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who had decided to take up an invitation from Aix-Marseille University to welcome researchers who wish to leave the United States.
On 12 March, Baptiste shared video on X, of a television appearance in which he deplored the way that research on health, climate, energy and AI “is being chainsawed in the United States”.
In the same interview, Baptiste said that he had “heard Elon Musk say that the International Space Station should be shut down in 2027. Who are we talking about? The boss of SpaceX? The head of the American public administration? None of this makes any sense.”
It was not immediately clear what conference the researcher who was denied entry to the US was planning to attend, but the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference was held outside Houston from 10 to 14 March.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/trump-musk-french-scientist-detained
