(Jewish Voice News) A visiting scholar at Harvard Law School who admitted to firing a BB gun outside a Brookline synagogue on the eve of Yom Kippur has now been taken into federal custody and has agreed to leave the United States, VIN News reported, citing the Department of Homeland Security.
Carlos Portugal Gouvêa, a Brazilian citizen, was arrested after the Sept. 21, 2023, incident outside Kehillath Israel Synagogue. Police said he discharged several air-rifle rounds near the building; Gouvêa insisted to officers at the time that he was “hunting rats,” according to VIN News.
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He later pleaded guilty in Brookline District Court to unlawful use of an air rifle and received six months of probation. As part of his plea arrangement, he agreed to voluntarily depart the country instead of undergoing formal deportation proceedings, VIN News reported.
Federal authorities say Gouvêa never left as required and instead continued his academic duties at Harvard Law School, which had listed him as a visiting researcher and lecturer for the 2024–2025 academic year. His visa had been revoked within weeks of the synagogue incident, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him last week following an investigation led by the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division, VIN News noted.
“It is a privilege to work and study in the United States,” DHS spokesperson Trisha McLaughlin said in a statement. “There is no place for violent and crude acts of antisemitism, and the department is not obligated to allow foreign nationals who commit such acts to remain here.”
Harvard Law School has declined to comment on his current status with the institution.
The case comes at a time when antisemitic incidents on U.S. campuses have drawn national scrutiny, a trend intensified since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, VIN News reported
