Officers put the chief of Iowa’s largest college district on administrative go away Saturday, a day after federal immigration brokers arrested him as a result of they mentioned he was within the nation illegally.
The Des Moines college 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, college 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 details.
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 ultimate 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 want to be clear, no one here was aware of any citizenship or immigration issues that Dr. Roberts may have been facing,” Norris mentioned. “The accusations ICE had made against Dr. Roberts are very serious, and we are taking them very seriously.”
Norris mentioned Roberts has retained a Des Moines legislation 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 completed a background examine 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 “comprehensive criminal, credit and background checks” on Roberts that didn’t point out any citizenship points, Norris mentioned.
Additionally Saturday, the Iowa Division of Training 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 examine 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 individuals are licensed to work within the U.S.
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 subject for Guyana.
ICE mentioned he entered the U.S. on a scholar visa in 1999.
A former senior Guyanese police official on Saturday remembered Roberts as a middle-distance runner who may have risen by means of 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 Drive commissioner Paul Slowe mentioned Roberts entered the Police Drive after graduating from the nation’s customary navy officers’ course.
“He served for a few years and then left. He was not dismissed or dishonorably discharged at all; he just moved on,” Slowe advised The Related Press. “He was a good, promising and disciplined man.”
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