BOSTON — A Harvard professor from Brazil was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Massachusetts after firing a pellet gun near a Brookline synagogue in early October and then having his visa swiftly revoked, federal officials said. The Department of Homeland Security has labeled the case an antisemitic shooting, while local police, synagogue leaders and the Harvard professor’s attorneys insist there is no evidence of antisemitic intent, Dec. 6, 2025.
Timeline of the Harvard professor case
The Harvard professor, identified as visiting law professor Carlos Portugal Gouvêa, was first arrested by Brookline police on Oct. 1 after witnesses reported someone firing what appeared to be a gun outside Temple Beth Zion, a synagogue on Beacon Street, as congregants arrived for Yom Kippur services. Officers said they found Gouvêa with a pellet rifle and that he told them he had been “hunting rats” near the property. He was charged with illegally discharging a BB or pellet gun, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and malicious damage to property after a car window was struck.
In the days after the incident, Temple Beth Zion’s leadership informed congregants in a public letter that they had “no reason to believe this was an antisemitic event,” even as the temple briefly locked down during the scare. Harvard placed the Harvard Law professor on administrative leave while it reviewed the episode, and local coverage emphasized that both police and synagogue officials viewed the shooting as reckless and frightening but not motivated by antisemitism.
On Nov. 24, Gouvêa accepted a plea agreement in Brookline District Court: prosecutors dropped three of the four charges in exchange for six months of pretrial probation and $386.59 in restitution for the damaged car window, after which the remaining count — illegal discharge of a BB or pellet gun — is set to be dismissed if he stays out of trouble. Boston.com reported in November that the plea did not include any hate crime enhancement and reiterated that local authorities did not allege antisemitic intent.
DHS antisemitism claim and fast-track visa revocation deepen dispute over Harvard professor
Despite those local findings, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin later described the October episode as an “anti-Semitic shooting” and “an affront to our core principles as a country” in announcing Gouvêa’s immigration arrest. According to a detailed report by Reuters, the State Department revoked the Harvard professor’s J-1 exchange visitor visa within weeks of the incident, clearing the way for ICE agents in Boston to take him into custody this week on immigration grounds rather than on new criminal charges.
Federal officials argued that foreign nationals who engage in “brazen, violent acts of anti-Semitism” have no right to remain in the country, even if local prosecutors resolve the underlying case. In court filings and public statements, however, lawyers for the Harvard professor have called the episode a misunderstanding, stressing his work on human rights and his family’s ties to the Jewish community. After his ICE arrest, Gouvêa agreed to depart the United States rather than fight removal proceedings, and he has now returned to Brazil voluntarily, according to The Associated Press. The university in São Paulo where he normally teaches has also defended him, echoing Temple Beth Zion’s view that the shooting was not an antisemitic attack.
The Harvard professor’s brief stay on campus — from a prestigious visiting appointment to an immigration arrest and exit from the country — has highlighted the unusual speed with which federal immigration authorities can act once a visa is revoked, even when a local criminal case appears headed toward quiet resolution. Civil liberties advocates note that the federal characterization of his conduct diverges sharply from that of local law enforcement and the alleged target of the incident, raising questions about how intent is determined in politically charged hate-crime narratives.
Case unfolds amid intense scrutiny of antisemitism at Harvard
The dispute over the Harvard professor comes as the university is under heavy federal scrutiny for its broader handling of antisemitism on campus. In June, the Department of Health and Human Services’ civil rights office found Harvard in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, concluding that the school had been “deliberately indifferent” to harassment of Jewish and Israeli students over a 19-month period beginning in October 2023. A joint federal task force later notified Harvard’s accreditor of the violation and warned that failure to address antisemitic harassment could jeopardize billions of dollars in federal funding.
Against that backdrop, the Trump administration has vowed a tougher line on campus antisemitism, publicly pressuring Harvard and other elite institutions to respond more aggressively to threats against Jewish students and houses of worship. Supporters of the Harvard professor argue that his case shows how that political climate can distort individual fact patterns, while DHS officials say it demonstrates the government’s resolve to act quickly when religious communities are put in fear. For now, the criminal charges in Massachusetts appear on track to be dismissed, but the federal label attached to Gouvêa — and to Harvard — may prove harder to erase.
