A visiting Harvard Law School professor has agreed to leave the United States after Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him over a BB gun shooting outside a Boston-area synagogue in October, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Carlos Portugal Gouvêa, a Brazilian national, was arrested Oct. 2 after firing a BB gun outside a synagogue the day before Yom Kippur. He later pleaded guilty to illegal use of an air rifle. Other charges, including disturbing the peace and vandalizing property, were dismissed. Harvard suspended him pending an internal investigation.
DHS said Gouvêa’s J-1 visa was revoked two weeks after the incident and that ICE’s Boston office took him into custody on Wednesday. Rather than contest deportation, he agreed to voluntarily depart the U.S.
“There is no room in the United States for brazen, violent acts of antisemitism like this,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, adding that foreign nationals who commit such acts are “not welcome here.”