Harvard Law prof from Brazil detained by ICE after shooting around synagogue

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it arrested Harvard Law School professor Carlos Portugal Gouvea earlier this month, weeks after the State Department revoked his temporary J-1 nonimmigrant visa after he allegedly opened fire outside a synagogue in October.

According to DHS, Gouvea, a Brazilian national, was initially arrested on October 1, 2025, after authorities said he fired a BB gun outside a synagogue on the eve of Yom Kippur. DHS said Gouvea told officers he was “hunting rats.”

The Department of State revoked Gouvea’s visa on October 16. On November 13, he accepted a plea deal on a charge of illegal use of the air rifle, while other charges, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, and vandalizing property, were dismissed, according to DHS.

After the guilty plea, ICE Boston Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrested Gouvea on Wednesday, DHS said, adding that he agreed to voluntarily depart the United States rather than undergo formal deportation proceedings.

“It is a privilege to work and study in the United States, not a right,” Assistant 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 principles as a country and an unacceptable threat against law-abiding American citizens.”

McLaughlin added that DHS views itself as having “zero obligation to admit foreigners who commit these inexplicably reprehensible acts or to let them stay here,” and said Secretary Kristi Noem had warned that those who “come to America and commit anti-American and anti-Semitic violence and terrorism” are “not welcome here.”