An Iowa school superintendent who was recently taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to step down, according to his legal representative.
The video featured is from a previous report.
Ian Roberts, 54, declared his immediate resignation from his role leading the Des Moines Public Schools in a letter shared by his lawyer on Tuesday.
The letter addressed to the Des Moines School Board mentioned, “Dr. Roberts, prioritizing the well-being of his 30,000 students, wishes to avoid being a diversion for the Board, educators, and staff dedicated to teaching the students of DMPS.”
The letter will be sent to the board on Tuesday, according to Roberts’ attorney, Alfredo Parrish.
Roberts was taken into custody on Friday, with ICE alleging he is unlawfully present in the U.S. from Guyana and was employed as a superintendent without proper work authorization and despite an existing deportation order.
On Monday, the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners revoked his license as an administrator. That same evening, the Des Moines School Board voted in favor of placing him on unpaid leave, giving his lawyer until midday Tuesday to provide evidence of his legal work status in the U.S. or face termination from his position.
Parrish said his office on Monday filed a motion in immigration court in Omaha, Nebraska, to stay the educator’s order of removal.
“This case presents significant complexity,” his attorney Parrish remarked in a Tuesday press conference. “It’s intricate, challenging, and has a wide array of issues that need to be addressed.”
“What I would do is encourage people, as they review this case, to be patient, to take it a step at a time,” he added.
Parrish also shared a letter with reporters purportedly sent from Roberts’ previous attorney in Texas in March, stating that his immigration case “has reached a successful resolution” and was closed. The letter did not contain any further details on the resolution.
Parrish said his office plans to file a motion to reopen Roberts’ immigration case on Tuesday.
Roberts entered the U.S. on a student visa in 1999 and a judge gave him a “final order of removal” in May 2024, ICE said in a statement.
Roberts joined the Des Moines district in July 2023 and had previously held leadership positions in school districts across the U.S. for 20 years, according to school board chair Jackie Norris.
Norris said during Monday’s school board meeting that the board received documentation from the Department of Homeland Security that day indicating Roberts is an unauthorized worker in the U.S. It also received documentation of Roberts’ final order of removal issued by an immigration judge, she said.
The board was not aware of Roberts’ immigration issues at the time of his hiring, according to Norris, who said the board is taking ICE’s allegations “very seriously.”
“I want to be clear, at no point was any DMPS employee or board member notified that Dr. Roberts was not eligible to work by a federal agency or Dr. Roberts,” Norris said.
Norris said when Roberts applied for the superintendent position, he stated that he was a citizen and provided a driver’s license and a Social Security card as documentation. A law firm reviewed the information presented by Roberts and did not raise any concerns about his eligibility to work, she said.
Asked how Roberts had a social security number, Parrish said he didn’t want to respond, though went on to say, “As you may or may not know, certain people coming into this country are entitled to get a Social Security number.”
“That’s not our concern at the moment,” he added.
When Roberts was taken into custody on Friday, he was in possession of a loaded handgun and $3,000 in cash, ICE said.
Asked about the allegation of the loaded firearm, Parrish said he also could not comment on the facts of that, though he went on to say Roberts was in the military in Guyana and “led some of the most difficult raids on the biggest criminals.”
“In doing that type of work, he was a target, on some occasions, to be taken out by the cartel,” Parrish said.
According to the ICE detainee locator, Roberts is currently being held at the Woodbury County Jail in Sioux City, Iowa. He is in “good spirits,” Parrish said.
“We want you to know that Dr. Roberts’ greatest concern is about his students who he actually loves, and the students who love him back,” Parrish said.
Meanwhile, Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn said Tuesday a “state-level investigation” into Roberts’ hiring is underway.
“Local leaders owe parents an explanation, and we need stronger safeguards to ensure that positions of public trust are filled by individuals who are properly vetted and legally authorized to serve,” he said in a statement.
The firm that performed the background check on Roberts prior to his hiring by Des Moines Public Schools told ABC News it was “not contracted to perform I-9 or work eligibility verification.”
“By standard practice, the employer is solely responsible for completing I-9 verification and determining employment eligibility,” Baker-Eubanks CEO Kim Cockerham said in a statement.
“We identified and disclosed all publicly available criminal records at that time, and those findings were provided to J.G. Consulting, the executive search firm, which then shared the information with its client, the Des Moines School District. The District ultimately chose to proceed with the hire despite having received the disclosed criminal record information,” Cockerham said.
Roberts has weapon possession charges from February 2020, according to ICE.
Prior to serving as superintendent in Des Moines, Roberts was superintendent of the Millcreek Township School District in Pennsylvania from August 2020 through June 2023.
The Millcreek Township School District said in a statement Monday that Roberts went through an FBI background check, completed I-9 eligibility forms and supplied documentation to support his eligibility to work. The district said it “never received any information or notification regarding the expiration of Dr. Roberts’ work authorization” and called reports of his detention “deeply concerning.”
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