The superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Friday, according to the school district.
ICE said Ian Roberts was in the country illegally from Guyana and was working as a superintendent despite having “a final order of removal and no work authorization.”
When officers conducting a “targeted enforcement operation” tried to approach Roberts in his car on Friday, the superintendent sped away, and the officers later found his car abandoned, ICE said.
Des Moines School District superintendent Dr. Ian Roberts waves to the crowd as passing through Grand Avenue during the Iowa State Fair Parade, Aug.t 9, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa.
Nirmalendu Majumdar/The Des Moines Register/USA TODAY NETWORK
Police helped find Roberts, and when he was taken into custody, the superintendent was in possession of a loaded handgun, a fixed-blade hunting knife and $3,000 in cash, ICE said.
Roberts came to the U.S. on a student visa in 1999 and a judge gave him a “final order of removal” in May 2024, ICE said in a statement. Roberts has weapon possession charges from February 2020, the agency said.
School district officials said in a statement they didn’t have information on “next potential steps” for Roberts.
