The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on December 4 the arrest of Harvard Law School professor Carlos Portugal Gouvea, a Brazilian national whose temporary J-1 visa was revoked following an October shooting incident outside a synagogue, according to a DHS press release.
Federal officials said Gouvea was arrested on October 1, one day before Yom Kippur, after he fired a BB gun outside a synagogue and later told authorities he was “hunting rats.” The U.S. Department of State revoked his visa on October 16.
According to DHS, Gouvea accepted a plea agreement on November 13 for illegal use of an air rifle, while additional charges — disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, and vandalizing property — were dismissed. Following the plea, ICE’s Boston Enforcement and Removal Operations took him into custody on December 4. DHS said Gouvea agreed to voluntarily depart the United States rather than undergo deportation proceedings.
“It is a privilege to work and study in the United States, not a right. There is no room in the United States for brazen, violent acts of antisemitism like this. They are an affront to our core principals as a country and an unacceptable threat against law-abiding American citizens,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in the release. “We are under zero obligation to admit foreigners who commit these inexplicably reprehensible acts or to let them stay here. Secretary Noem has made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and commit anti-American and antisemitic violence and terrorism should think again. You are not welcome here.”
Similar Immigration Case Cited by DHS
Federal officials pointed to a comparable case earlier this year involving Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and protest organizer. In April, a Louisiana immigration judge ruled that Khalil could be deported after Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that he had engaged in “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities,” NPR reported.
Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, was detained on March 8 and held at a federal detention facility in Louisiana. His attorneys have said they intend to appeal.
Related Dallas Demonstration in 2024
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, a pro-Palestinian protest in Dallas last year resulted in 12 arrests after demonstrators blocked Market Center Boulevard and attempted to plant an eight-foot olive tree in the roadway outside the Hilton Anatole Hotel, where the Jewish National Fund Global Conference was taking place.
Dallas police arrested 10 individuals on charges of obstructing a highway, while two others were cited for criminal trespass.
