A visiting Harvard Law professor has agreed to return to his native Brazil after he was arrested for firing a pellet gun near a Boston-area synagogue on the eve of Yom Kippur, claiming he was shooting rats.
The Department of Homeland Security characterized the act as “brazen anti-Semitism.”
“It is a privilege to work and study in the United States, not a right,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “There is no room in the United States for brazen, violent acts of anti-Semitism like this. They are an affront to our core principals [sic] as a country and an unacceptable threat against law-abiding American citizens.”
Carlos Portugal Gouvea was in the United States on a J-1 visa. The State Department revoked Gouvea’s visa, a temporary non-immigrant visa, two weeks after the shooting incident occurred outside of Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Gouvea was arrested Wednesday by ICE Boston Enforcement and Removal Operations, and rather than facing deportation, agreed to self-deport. After the incident, Harvard Law put Gouvea on administrative leave but did not release any public statement regarding further punishment.
The professor was confronted by synagogue security after he fired two shots, one of which shattered a car window. Police reported a brief “physical struggle” before Gouvea ran to his home, which was located near the synagogue.
Gouvea was facing four charges, one felony for vandalism, and three misdemeanors. His misdemeanor charges included illegally discharging a pellet gun, disorderly conduct, and disturbing the peace, The Harvard Crimson reported.
In a November 13 hearing, Gouvea entered into a plea deal, and three of the four charges were dropped. Regardless, the State Department pursued revoking his visa, and ICE detained the Brazilian professor.
“We are under zero obligation to admit foreigners who commit these inexplicably reprehensible acts or to let them stay here,” McLaughlin said. “Secretary Noem has made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and commit anti-American and anti-Semitic violence and terrorism should think again. You are not welcome here.”
The Trump administration has been pushing Harvard to take significant steps to protect Jewish students and root out antisemitism on the college campus. The pellet gun incident took place just days after the administration entered into a tentative deal with Harvard to restore frozen federal funds to that were stripped from the university earlier this year over the administration’s response to the rise of antisemitism following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.