Des Moines schools superintendent Ian Roberts will resign after being arrested by ICE

Dr. Ian Roberts, the superintendent of the Des Moines, Iowa, public school system, will be submitting his resignation just days after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested him on accusations of being a “criminal illegal alien” with a “prior weapons charge,” according to his attorney.

“Out of concern for his 30,000 students, Dr. Roberts does not want to distract the board, educators and staff from focusing on educating DMPS’s students,” Roberts’s lawyer wrote in the letter, which he planned to send to the Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS) school board on Tuesday.

The U.S. Justice Department announced on Tuesday that it had opened a civil rights investigation into DMPS over what it described as the district’s “DEI initiatives and race-based hiring preferences.”

“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,” Sam Olson, director of enforcement and removal operations in ICE’s St. Paul, Minn., office, said Friday in a press release.

The same release claimed that Roberts, a former Olympic middle-distance runner, was “in possession of a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash and a fixed-blade hunting knife” when he was apprehended, adding that “he sped away” after officers approached him. A senior ICE official told Fox News that Roberts soon abandoned his vehicle and was “found in a brushy area 200 yards away with the help of an Iowa State Police K9.”

In a news conference on Tuesday, Roberts’s attorney, Alfredo Parrish, did not “directly address whether his client had ever had permission to work in the United States,” according to the New York Times — but he did say that he is working on a motion to reopen Roberts’s immigration case after sharing a letter from a lawyer in Texas telling Roberts that it had “reached a successful resolution” earlier this year.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, called Roberts’s arrest “shocking” in a statement on Saturday. “We are a nation of laws that must be enforced,” Reynolds said. “Those who believe immigration laws are optional are dangerously wrong.”

Progressive groups and lawmakers in Iowa lamented Roberts’s arrest. The Directors Council, an umbrella group of several nonprofits that serve Des Moines’s Black community, said in a statement that “Dr. Roberts has been a trusted partner, a dedicated advocate for equity, and an unwavering supporter of families and youth in Polk County,” adding that his contributions to “the wider community are immeasurable, and we stand with him during this uncertain moment.”

Alison Hoeman, founder of Des Moines Refugees Support, told the Des Moines Register that she learned of Roberts’s arrest from the families of students who had called their parents asking, “Nothing’s going to happen to Dr. Roberts, right?”

“It’s the Black and Brown kids who are worried,” Hoeman said. “If it’s Ian Roberts who’s in trouble, what does that mean for them?”

Here’s what we know so far about Roberts — and why he was arrested.

Who is Ian Roberts?

Roberts was born on Dec. 18, 1973. ICE claims that he is “from Guyana” and “first entered the U.S. in 1999 on a F-1 student visa”; in his Des Moines superintendent bio, Roberts “proudly shares that he was born to immigrant parents from Guyana, and spent most of his formative years in Brooklyn, N.Y.”

According to the same bio, Roberts graduated with “a B.S. degree from Coppin State University, earned master’s degrees from St. John’s University and Georgetown University, and received his doctorate in Urban Educational Leadership from Trident University.” While at St. John’s, Roberts specialized in the 800 meters. He went on to compete for Guyana in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

Roberts started as superintendent of the Des Moines public school district on July 1, 2023. Prior to that, he served for three years as superintendent of the Millcreek Township, Penn., school district. His two-plus-decade career in education also includes administrative roles in St. Louis, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and NYC’s South Bronx.

According to his bio, Roberts has written about “leadership, empathy and cultural responsiveness” and is “passionate about instructional excellence, diversity, equity, inclusion and innovation in education.” He also “enjoys hunting.”

“When considering candidates, the Board was looking for educational experience, academic excellence and a passion for innovation and inspiration, and we found those qualities and more in Dr. Roberts,” Des Moines Public Schools Board Chair Teree Caldwell-Johnson said when Roberts was hired in 2023. “Dr. Roberts’ focus on creating equitable experiences for students to thrive, paired with his commitment to continuous improvement, creates an exciting opportunity for our students, staff and community.”

According to the Des Moines Register, Roberts made “$305,917 in salary and benefits in the 2024-25 school year.”

Why was Roberts arrested by ICE?

Federal immigration authorities say Roberts had long been living and working in the United States without authorization.

According to ICE, Roberts overstayed his 1999 student visa and received a final order of removal from an immigration judge on May 22, 2024. A year later, “an immigration judge in Dallas, Texas, denied a motion to reopen his immigration case,” a senior ICE official told Fox.

Earlier, on Feb. 5, 2020, Roberts was arrested and charged with illegally possessing a weapon. According to ICE, “it is a violation of federal law for those in the U.S. without legal status to possess a firearm and ammunition.”

ICE said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) would be investigating “how Roberts acquired the handgun” found in his possession when he was arrested on Friday. Fox News reported that it was “a loaded Glock 19.”

According to the ICE detainee locator website, Roberts is currently being held at the Pottawattamie County Jail in western Iowa. That page lists his country of birth as Guyana.

DMPS placed Roberts on paid leave on Saturday and unpaid leave on Monday. The school board had given him until noon Tuesday to provide documents refuting ICE’s claims.

Additional reporting by David Sessions