DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Officers put the chief of Iowa’s largest faculty district on administrative leave Saturday, a day after federal immigration brokers arrested him as a result of they mentioned he was within the nation illegally.
The Des Moines faculty board voted unanimously to put Superintendent Ian Roberts on paid go away throughout a three-minute-long particular assembly. The board mentioned Roberts was not obtainable to hold out his duties for the 30,000-student district and acknowledged that officers would reassess his standing after getting extra data.
After the assembly, faculty board president Jackie Norris learn an announcement, saying phrase of Roberts’ arrest Friday made for a “jarring day” however noting that board members nonetheless didn’t have all of the info.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement mentioned brokers detained Roberts as a result of he was within the nation illegally, didn’t have authorization to work and was topic to a closing elimination order issued in 2024. ICE brokers stopped Roberts whereas he was driving a school-issued car, and the company mentioned he then fled right into a wooded space earlier than being apprehended with assist from Iowa State Patrol officers.
He was held within the Woodbury County Jail in Sioux Metropolis, in northwest Iowa, about 150 miles from Des Moines.
“I need to be clear, nobody right here was conscious of any citizenship or immigration points that Dr. Roberts could have been going through,” Norris mentioned. “The accusations ICE had made in opposition to Dr. Roberts are very critical, and we’re taking them very severely.”
Norris mentioned Roberts has retained a Des Moines regulation agency to signify him. Lawyer Alfredo Parrish confirmed his agency was representing Roberts however declined to touch upon his case.
Norris additionally repeated that the district had executed a background verify on Roberts earlier than he was employed that didn’t point out any issues and that he signed a kind affirming he was a U.S. citizen. An organization that aided within the seek for a superintendent in 2023 additionally employed one other agency to conduct “complete felony, credit score and background checks” on Roberts that didn’t point out any citizenship points, Norris mentioned.
Additionally Saturday, the Iowa Division of Schooling launched an announcement saying Roberts acknowledged he was a U.S. citizen when he utilized for an administrator license. The division mentioned the Iowa Board of Instructional Examiners carried out a felony historical past verify with state and federal authorities earlier than issuing a license.
The division mentioned it’s reviewing the Des Moines district’s hiring procedures for making certain individuals are approved to work within the U.S.
Roberts had beforehand mentioned he was born to immigrant mother and father from Guyana and spent a lot of his childhood in Brooklyn, New York. He competed within the 2000 Olympics in monitor and subject for Guyana.
ICE mentioned he entered the U.S. on a pupil visa in 1999.
A former senior Guyanese police official on Saturday remembered Roberts as a middle-distance runner who might have risen by the ranks of the South American nation’s police pressure had he not emigrated to the U.S. many years in the past. Retired assistant Guyana Police Pressure commissioner Paul Slowe mentioned Roberts entered the Police Pressure after graduating from the nation’s normal navy officers’ course.
“He served for just a few years after which left. He was not dismissed or dishonorably discharged in any respect; he simply moved on,” Slowe informed The Related Press. “He was an excellent, promising and disciplined man.”
Related Press author Bert Wilkinson in Georgetown, Guyana, contributed to this report.
