DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A day after federal immigration agents apprehended the leader of Iowa’s largest school district on allegations of being in the country illegally, officials placed him on administrative leave.
In a swift three-minute special meeting, the Des Moines school board voted unanimously to set Superintendent Ian Roberts on paid leave. The board expressed that Roberts was unavailable to fulfill his responsibilities for the 30,000-student district and mentioned plans to re-evaluate his situation once more information was obtained.
Following the meeting, school board president Jackie Norris provided a statement describing Friday’s news of Roberts’ arrest as “jarring.” She emphasized that board members were still in the process of gathering all the pertinent details.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, agents detained Roberts for lacking legal immigration status and work authorization and facing a final removal order from 2024. ICE reported that when stopped in a school-issued vehicle, Roberts attempted to escape into a wooded area before Iowa State Patrol officers assisted in his capture.
He was held in the Woodbury County Jail in Sioux City, in northwest Iowa, about 150 miles from Des Moines.
“Let me be clear, none of us were aware of any citizenship or immigration challenges Dr. Roberts might have been facing,” Norris stated. “The allegations ICE presents against Dr. Roberts are serious, and we are treating them accordingly.”
Norris announced that Roberts engaged a Des Moines law firm for his defense. Attorney Alfredo Parrish confirmed his firm’s representation of Roberts, yet chose not to comment further on the case.
Norris also repeated that the district had done a background check on Roberts before he was hired that didn’t indicate any problems and that he signed a form affirming he was a U.S. citizen. A company that aided in the search for a superintendent in 2023 also hired another firm to conduct “comprehensive criminal, credit and background checks” on Roberts that didn’t indicate any citizenship issues, Norris said.
Also Saturday, the Iowa Department of Education released a statement saying Roberts stated he was a U.S. citizen when he applied for an administrator license. The department said the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners conducted a criminal history check with state and federal authorities before issuing a license.
The department said it is reviewing the Des Moines district’s hiring procedures for ensuring people are authorized to work in the U.S.
Roberts had previously said he was born to immigrant parents from Guyana and spent much of his childhood in Brooklyn, New York. He competed in the 2000 Olympics in track and field for Guyana.
ICE said he entered the U.S. on a student visa in 1999.
A former senior Guyanese police official on Saturday remembered Roberts as a middle-distance runner who could have risen through the ranks of the South American country’s police force had he not emigrated to the U.S. decades ago. Retired assistant Guyana Police Force commissioner Paul Slowe said Roberts entered the Police Force after graduating from the country’s standard military officers’ course.
“He served for a few years and then left. He was not dismissed or dishonorably discharged at all; he just moved on,” Slowe told The Associated Press. “He was a good, promising and disciplined man.”
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Associated Press writer Bert Wilkinson in Georgetown, Guyana, contributed to this report.
