A Brazilian Harvard Law School professor who pleaded guilty last month to illegally firing an air rifle outside a Boston-area synagogue — and told police he was “hunting rats” — has agreed to leave the US following his arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week.
Carlos Portugal Gouvea, 43, copped Nov. 13 to a single charge of illegal use of the air rifle in connection with the Oct. 2 incident outside of Brookline’s Temple Beth Zion, which took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism.
The scholar was arrested by ICE Boston Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Wednesday and agreed to return to Brazil voluntarily to avoid deportation, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“It is a privilege to work and study in the United States, not a right,” DHS spokesperson 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 as a country and an unacceptable threat against law-abiding American citizens.”
Gouvea, a visiting law professor at the Ivy League institution, was in the US on a so-called J-1 (temporary non-immigrant) visa, which was revoked by the State Department two weeks after the shooting incident.
After firing two shots, Gouvea was confronted by the synagogue’s private security, leading to a “brief physical struggle” before the suspect fled inside his home near the house of worship, according to a police report cited by Brookline.News.
When confronted by local cops, Gouvea claimed he was using the pellet gun to hunt local vermin. Police later discovered one of the shots had shattered a car window.
Harvard Law placed Gouvea on administrative leave, but did not publicly reveal any additional disciplinary action. As part of the professor’s plea deal, charges of disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, and vandalizing property were dismissed.
The synagogue incident took place days after President Trump claimed Harvard had reached a tentative deal with his administration to restore $2.4 billion in frozen federal grants, ending a clash over issues including discrimination against Jewish students following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
