Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Ian Roberts on Friday, accusing him of living in the country illegally, The New York Times reports.
(Phil Roeder via Flickr Creative Commons)
Associate Superintendent Matt Smith is serving as the district’s temporary leader. “This is challenging on many levels, and the reality is that we may not have additional answers right away,” the Times quoted him as saying.
Hundreds of protesters marched in Des Moines, chanting “Free Dr Roberts,” according to the Des Moines Register. One teacher called the arrest “disgusting” and “heartbreaking”: “When they do something like this, it really does send a message to our community and to our students and to our families … so I really want our students and our community to know that we are here with them, just like they are for Dr Roberts.”
During his two-year tenure, Dr Roberts was known for visiting classrooms and offering instructional advice to teachers. CNN highlighted the contrast between ICE’s description of Dr Roberts as a “criminal alien” and local views of him. Jackie Norris, president of the DMPS School Board, described him as “an integral part of our school community” who “has shown up in ways big and small” for students and staff.
Dr Roberts came to the US in 1999 on an F-1 student visa. His career spanned Pennsylvania, Maryland, Missouri, New York, and Washington, DC. A licensed gun owner, he once pleaded guilty in Pennsylvania to a weapons possession charge during a hunting trip. The school board was informed of the case during its vetting process and did not consider it disqualifying, the Times noted.
ICE, however, said Dr Roberts was living in the US under a deportation order and lacked work authorization. Fox News, citing unnamed sources, reported his employment authorization card had expired in 2020 and that “On May 22, 2024, a judge ordered that he be deported.”
“This suspect was arrested in possession of a loaded weapon in a vehicle provided by Des Moines Public Schools after fleeing federal law enforcement,” Fox News quoted Sam Olson, director of ICE Enforcement Removal Operations in St Paul, as saying. “How this illegal alien was hired without work authorization, a final order of removal, and a prior weapons charge is beyond comprehension and should alarm the parents of that school district.”
The Des Moines Public Schools district serves more than 30,000 students in 38 elementary schools, 11 middle schools, five traditional high schools, an online high school, and 10 special schools or programs.