By Hannah FingerhutThe Related Press
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Federal immigration brokers focused the popular chief of Iowa’s largest college district in a visitors cease Sept. 26 and arrested him after he fled into the woods, leaving educators and group members shocked.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stated Des Moines Public Faculty Superintendent Ian Roberts was within the nation illegally and had no work authorization. Roberts, who’s from Guyana in South America, was thought of an ICE fugitive as a result of he was topic to a last elimination order issued in 2024, the company stated.
ICE stated that it focused Roberts for arrest by initiating a visitors cease on Sept. 26 whereas he was driving in his school-issued car. After he fled, officers found his car deserted close to a wooded space. He was finally positioned and brought into ICE custody with the assistance of Iowa State Patrol officers. It’s unclear the place Roberts was being held Sept. 26 or if he had an lawyer to symbolize him.
Phil Roeder, the district’s spokesperson, stated he was supposed to fulfill Roberts at a faculty occasion the morning of Sept. 26, however Roberts despatched a textual content saying he couldn’t make it. Roeder stated he bought a video name from Roberts quickly after and watched officers detain him.
Roeder instructed The Related Press that the district has seen “nothing that might counsel that he’s not a citizen.” The district stated later Sept. 26 {that a} third social gathering was employed to conduct a complete background verify on Roberts and that Roberts accomplished an I-9, which requires staff to current paperwork displaying that they have been licensed to work. District officers additionally acknowledged that they had no information of an order of elimination issued in 2024.
Roberts, who has described himself as a longtime gun proprietor and hunter, was in possession of a loaded handgun, $3,000 in money and a fixed-blade searching knife when arrested, ICE stated.
“This must be a wake-up name for our communities to the good work that our officers are doing on daily basis to take away public security threats,” ICE enforcement and elimination operations regional official Sam Olson stated in an announcement. “How this unlawful alien was employed with out work authorization, a last order of elimination, and a previous weapons cost is past comprehension and may alarm the mother and father of that college district.”
Roberts is an skilled educator
Leaders of the Des Moines district stated that they have been nonetheless gathering details about the state of affairs, which they referred to as legally advanced. They described Roberts as a dynamic chief who related with college students of all backgrounds.
Jackie Norris, college board president, stated Roberts has been an “integral a part of our college group” who has “proven up in methods large and small.”
A longtime chief at college districts throughout the nation, the 54-year-old started his time period as superintendent of Des Moines colleges in July 2023. In that place, he oversaw a district that serves greater than 30,000 college students and practically 5,000 workers. The state board of instructional examiners issued Roberts an expert administrator license in 2023, which stays energetic.
He earned a $270,000 annual base wage, in line with his first contract with the district, which was in impact till June 30 this yr.
Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds was made conscious early Sept. 26 that Roberts was in custody, in line with her spokesperson Mason Mauro. Reynolds was involved with state and federal authorities.
In a joint assertion, the presidents of unions representing academics and different college workers in Des Moines and throughout the state stated they have been shocked by Roberts’ detention. They stated he had been a “large advocate for college students, households, workers, and the group.”
Earlier than coming to Iowa, Roberts had beforehand labored as superintendent of the Millcreek Township Faculty District in Pennsylvania.
Roberts is the son of immigrant mother and father from Guyana
A biography for Roberts listed on the district’s web site says he was born to immigrant mother and father from Guyana and spent a lot of his childhood in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Coppin State College’s web site options an alumni profile of Roberts, who graduated from the college in Baltimore in 1998. In it, Roberts stated his father immigrated to the US within the Nineteen Eighties, and his mom immigrated within the early 2000s.
ICE stated that Roberts entered the U.S. on a pupil visa in 1999. The subsequent yr, he competed for Guyana within the Olympics in monitor and discipline.
Pleaded responsible to a gun infraction
ICE pointed to a previous weapons cost for Roberts however offered no particulars.
Courtroom data in Pennsylvania present that Roberts pleaded responsible in January 2022 to a minor infraction for unlawfully possessing a loaded firearm in a car, and was fined $100 plus courtroom prices. The case stemmed from a quotation in Erie County issued the prior month by a Pennsylvania Recreation Fee officer, who stopped Roberts as he was ending a day of deer searching on state lands.
Roberts stated on the time he was a longtime licensed hunter and gun proprietor, and that he left his searching rifle on the seat of his car in plain view to make sure the officer didn’t really feel threatened throughout their interplay. He stated that he was shocked when the officer cited him for doing so, however that he pleaded responsible to keep away from any distraction. He questioned whether or not his darkish pores and skin could have performed a task within the case.
“I’ll not seem like the ‘kind of man’ who would get pleasure from deer season in Pennsylvania, in actual fact, I’m and have been attempting to find greater than 20 years,” Roberts wrote on a social media put up then.
Roeder stated the district was conscious of the 2022 cost and it had been addressed early on.
It was the second time in two days that an aggressive motion by ICE shocked native officers in Iowa. On Sept. 25, brokers in plain garments who solely recognized themselves as “federal brokers” tackled a person at a grocery retailer in downtown Iowa Metropolis, pinning him to the ground and handcuffing him as shocked consumers seemed on.
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Related Press author Ryan J. Foley in Iowa Metropolis, Iowa, contributed to this report.
