U.S. immigration officials arrest Harvard professor after firing pellet gun near synagogue

“U.S. immigration authorities arrested a visiting professor at Harvard Law School this week after he pleaded guilty to discharging a pellet gun outside a Massachusetts synagogue the day before Yom Kippur,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday (December 4, 2025).

Carlos Portugal Gouvea, a Brazilian citizen, was arrested on Wednesday (December 3, 2025) by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after his temporary non-immigrant visa was revoked by the U.S. State Department following what President Donald Trump’s administration labelled an “anti-Semitic shooting incident” — a description at odds with how local authorities have described the case.

“Gouvea, an associate professor at the University of Sao Paulo Law School who had taught at Harvard during the fall semester, has agreed to leave the country,” the Homeland Security Department said. He could not be immediately reached for comment, and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Harvard declined to comment.

Gouvea’s arrest came as the Trump administration pressed Harvard to reach a deal to resolve a litany of allegations it has made against the Ivy League institution, including that Harvard had not done enough to combat anti-semitism and protect Jewish students on campus.

Harvard has sued over some of the actions the administration has taken against it, leading a judge to rule in September that the administration unlawfully terminated more than $2 billion in research grants awarded to the university.

Police in Brookline, Massachusetts, arrested Gouvea on October 1, 2025 after responding to a report of a person with a gun near the temple Beth Zion on the eve of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. “Gouvea said he was using a pellet gun to hunt rats nearby,” according to a police report.

He agreed last month to plead guilty to illegally discharging the pellet gun and serve six months of pretrial probation. Other charges he faced for disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, and vandalising property were dismissed as part of the plea deal.

Despite the Trump administration’s claims, the temple Beth Zion has previously told its community members that the incident did not appear to have been fuelled by anti-semitism, a view shared by the Brookline Police Department, which investigated the matter.

The temple said that the police had informed it that Gouvea was not aware that he lived next to a synagogue or was shooting next to it. Further, Gouvea has also told that he was not aware that it was a religious holiday.