French Scientist Denied Entry to US Over Anti-Trump Messages

France's minister of higher education and research spoke out Thursday over reports that a French scientist was refused entry to the U.S. after customs agents found messages on his cellphone that were critical of President Donald Trump—yet another incident that has raised alarm over the Trump administration's views of First Amendment rights.

The unnamed space researcher works for the French government's National Center for Scientific Research and was traveling on March 9 to a conference in the Houston area when he was reportedly randomly selected by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents for a search.

The officers searched his electronic devices—something that happened to fewer than 0.01% of the international travelers who arrived in the U.S. in 2024, according to the CBP—and found messages that "conveyed hatred of Trump and could be qualified as terrorism," the agency said.

The messages reportedly criticized Trump's treatment of scientists and his views on academic freedom, and prompted an FBI investigation that was quickly dropped.

With the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which billionaire Tesla CEO and Trump megadonor Elon Musk was named to lead, the president has introduced massive cuts to the National Institutes of Health, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency, and other agencies—slashing jobs and tens of billions of dollars in grants that fund crucial work that has helped the U.S. become a leader in scientific and biomedical research.

"It's no secret that Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency effort has resulted in millions of dollars in cuts to scientific research," wrote Hafiz Rashid at The New Republic on Wednesday. "The idea that criticism of this would rise to the level of terrorism and result in someone being barred from the U.S. is absurd."

The researcher's apparent expression of disapproval regarding Trump's policies led officers to confiscate his phone and computer before sending him back to France the next day.

"It's no secret that Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency effort has resulted in millions of dollars in cuts to scientific research. The idea that criticism of this would rise to the level of terrorism and result in someone being barred from the U.S. is absurd."

"Freedom of opinion, free research, and academic freedom are values we will continue to proudly uphold," Philippe Baptiste, the French research minister, said in a statement. "I will defend the possibility for all French researchers to be faithful to them, in compliance with the law, wherever they may be in the world."

Baptiste said CBP officers only found that the scientist's "phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friendly relations in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration's research policy."

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has detained and pushed to deport a recent Columbia University graduate and a Georgetown University postdoctoral fellow for statements they and their family members have made in support of Palestinian rights and criticizing U.S. and Israeli policy in the occupied Palestine territories, accusing them without evidence of providing aid and support to Hamas.

The president also said last week that critical coverage of his administration by media companies such as CNN and MSNBC "has to be illegal."

National security researcher and analyst Olga Lautman said the CBP's decision to refuse entry to the French scientist serves as "more proof that we are now an authoritarian state."

Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the pro-democracy group DAWN, said that "searching people's cellphones and punishing them for having critical comments is exactly what the dictators in Egypt and Syria have done," and pointed to a recent Amnesty International report about a British national, Ahmed al-Doush, who was arrested by Saudi authorities after finding a social media post by him that they objected to.

"The purpose" of the CBP's recent actions, said Whitson, "is to create fear and self-censorship everywhere."