Carlos Portugal Gouvêa, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, was arrested earlier this year following a shooting incident in front of Temple Beth Zion on Yom Kippur. He discharged a pellet gun and ultimately received probation for the matter.
But that was far from the end of it. Gouvêa, a Brazilian national, found himself a target of immigration officials. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) publicly declared the incident an “anti-Semitic shooting,” withdrew his visa, and Gouvêa was arrested by ICE. After which Gouvêa voluntarily left the country.
Here’s the kicker: the very synagogue in front of which the pellet-gun incident occurred says they don’t believe it was motivated by antisemitism. The leadership of Temple Beth Zion told their community that police told them Gouvêa claimed he didn’t know he was near a synagogue and was “hunting rats,” and they “have no reason to believe this was an anti-Semitic event.”
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Brookline police reportedly echoed that. No bias finding, no hate-crime classification, just a plea deal for an illegally fired pellet gun. But DHS and ICE think they know antisemitism better than the actual Jewish Temple.
“It is a privilege to work and study in the United States, not a right,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for Public Affairs at DHS, said. “There is no room in the United States for brazen, violent acts of anti-Semitism like this.”
“Secretary Noem has made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and commit anti-American and anti-Semitic violence and terrorism should think again,” McLaughlin continued. I mean… not to be too cutesy, but gun violence is the most American of violence. But no one on the ground seems to seriously think this was terrorism, and yet the Department of Homeland Security is out there rewriting narratives to keep the streets safe from… pellet guns?
The Trump administration is out here federalizing hyper-local, low-level incidents to consolidate narrative control around immigration. A pellet gun discharge that local police treated as a misdemeanor-level disturbance is suddenly an “anti-Semitic shooting,” complete with visa revocation, ICE arrest, and a national-security frame all in the service of a political agenda.
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Let’s be real, this has nothing to do with gun violence or antisemitism and everything to do with the MAGA immigration priorities. The pellet gun is only an excuse.
Earlier: Harvard Law School Professor Arrested Following Shooting Incident
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].