Des Moines faculty superintendent positioned on go away after ICE detention

Officers on Saturday put the chief of Iowa’s largest faculty district on administrative go away, a day after federal immigration brokers detained 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 info.

After the assembly, faculty board president Jackie Norris learn a press release, saying phrase of Roberts’ detention Friday made for a “jarring day” however noting that board members nonetheless did not have all of the information.

In a assertion on social media, Norris mentioned the college district had “no confirmed info” about why Roberts was detained and the affiliate superintendent could be stepping in in his place. The varsity mentioned they’d not been advised of the “subsequent potential steps” by immigration authorities. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement mentioned brokers detained Roberts as a result of he was within the nation illegally, did not have authorization to work and was topic to a last elimination order issued in 2024. ICE brokers stopped Roberts whereas he was driving a school-issued automobile, and the company mentioned he then fled right into a wooded space earlier than being apprehended with assist from Iowa State Patrol officers.

“I wish to be clear, nobody right here was conscious of any citizenship or immigration points that Dr. Roberts might have been dealing with,” Norris mentioned. “The accusations ICE had made in opposition to Dr. Roberts are very severe, and we’re taking them very critically.”

Norris mentioned Roberts has retained a Des Moines regulation agency to characterize 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 test on Roberts earlier than he was employed that did not point out any issues and that he signed a type 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 prison, credit score and background checks” on Roberts that did not point out any citizenship points, Norris mentioned.

Additionally Saturday, the Iowa Division of Schooling launched a press release 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 prison historical past test with state and federal authorities earlier than issuing a license.

The division mentioned it’s reviewing the Des Moines district’s hiring procedures for guaranteeing persons are approved to work within the U.S.

In response to CBS Des Moines affiliate KCCI, the district mentioned Roberts underwent a background test in 2023 by a personal contractor, and in the course of the hiring course of, he made the board conscious of a firearm cost associated to a searching rifle, and offered “adequate context and clarification” to maneuver ahead.

Roberts was licensed by the Iowa Board of Instructional Examiners, the district advised KCCI. 

Roberts had beforehand mentioned he was born to immigrant dad and mom from Guyana and spent a lot of his childhood in Brooklyn, New York. He competed within the 2000 Olympics in monitor and discipline 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 means of the ranks of the South American nation’s police drive had he not emigrated to the U.S. many years in the past. Retired assistant Guyana Police Power commissioner Paul Slowe mentioned Roberts entered the Police Power after graduating from the nation’s normal army 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 advised The Related Press. “He was , promising and disciplined man.”