‘The accusations ICE had made against Dr. Roberts are very serious, and we are taking them very seriously,’ the school board president said.
The leader of Iowa’s largest school district was placed on administrative leave by officials on Sept. 27, a day after his arrest by immigration authorities, who said he had entered the United States illegally.
During a three-minute-long special meeting on Saturday, the Des Moines school board voted unanimously to place Superintendent Ian Roberts on paid leave and said he was not available to fulfill his responsibilities for the 30,000-student district. The board added that it would reassess his status once it got more information.
School board president Jackie Norris read a statement following the meeting, saying notice of Roberts’s arrest on Friday made for a “jarring day” and that the board still needed all the facts.
Immigration agents detained Roberts because he entered the country illegally, lacked work authorization, and had been issued a final removal order in 2024, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Roberts was driving a school-issued vehicle when he was stopped by ICE agents, and the agency said he fled into the woods before he was arrested with assistance from Iowa State Patrol officers.
Roberts is being held in the Woodbury County Jail in Sioux City, located roughly 150 miles from Des Moines in northwest Iowa.
“I want to be clear, no one here was aware of any citizenship or immigration issues that Dr. Roberts may have been facing,” Norris said.
“The accusations ICE had made against Dr. Roberts are very serious, and we are taking them very seriously.”
Roberts is being represented by a Des Moines law firm, Norris said. Attorney Alfredo Parrish confirmed his firm was representing Roberts but declined to comment further.
The district had ordered a background check on Roberts before he was hired that didn’t flag any issues, and the superintendent signed a form attesting he was a U.S. citizen, Norris added.
The school board president said the company that assisted in the search for a superintendent in 2023 had also hired a separate firm to facilitate a “comprehensive criminal, credit, and background checks” on Roberts that didn’t unveil any citizenship issues.
By Jacob Burg
