A University of Idaho researcher is back on the job, a year after an immigration case left her unemployed and facing deportation.

Katarzyna Dziewanowska, a Polish scientist who has studied possible ways to counter bioterrorism, among other things, was granted authorization to return to work in September and federal immigration officials re-opened her application for permanent residency. She returned to her position in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry last week.

Immigration officials denied her application for permanent residency last year after she spent 14 years as a researcher at the UI. She was recruited by the university, and worked on sensitive research that has on occasion required her to earn FBI security clearance. Immigration officials denied her application citing an eight-month period of unauthorized work in 2005.

She and her supporters say she followed the university’s erroneous advice regarding the status of her work permit – school administrators have declined to comment on the case. This summer the university issued a statement noting that immigration matters are ultimately the responsibility of the individual employee.

Dziewanowska’s husband is also a UI researcher studying treatment of retroviruses. The denial of the application limited his ability to receive grants, and blocked her son from applying for a scholarship program to attend college. (Spokesman Review)