ICE releases scientist arrested after wrong turn at Canadian border

An upstate New York research scientist arrested after making a wrong turn near the Canadian border has been released from ICE after nearly a month in detention.

Shovgi Huseynov, an Azerbaijani national, has been a researcher at the University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences since 2022.

Under his visa, he is authorized to work in the U.S. through 2029, according to a UB spokesperson. However, Huseynov was taken into custody by border patrol agents on Jan. 7 following a navigation error.

Huseynov was driving for Lyft and attempting to drop off a passenger when he made a wrong turn onto the Peace Bridge, an international border crossing connecting Buffalo, N.Y., and Fort Erie in Canada, local CBS affiliate WIVB reported.

Though he said he was not trying to leave the U.S., Customs and Border Protection officers arrested him and determined he “may be subject to removal from the U.S.”

Huseynov was then taken to an ICE detention facility in Batavia before ultimately being transferred to North Lake Correctional Facility in Michigan.

On Monday, a UB spokesperson confirmed Huseynov’s release.

“The University at Buffalo community is very pleased with the federal immigration judge’s order last week granting Shovgi Huseynov’s release on bond from the detention center in Michigan,” the spokesperson said in a news release. “The university will continue to provide appropriate support to Shovgi and his attorney as his case proceeds through the federal immigration system.”

The University at Buffalo, a premier public research university within the State University of New York (SUNY) system, is one of SUNY’s flagship institutions.