Des Moines superintendent to resign after being detained by ICE, lawyer says

(DES MOINES, Iowa) — An Iowa superintendent who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last week will resign, his attorney said Tuesday.

Ian Roberts, 54, announced his immediate resignation as superintendent of the Des Moines Public Schools in a letter released through his attorney on Tuesday.

“Out of concern for his 30,000 students, Dr. Roberts does not want to distract the Board, educators, and staff from focusing on educating DMPS’s students,” the letter to the Des Moines School Board stated.

The letter will be sent to the board on Tuesday, according to Roberts’ attorney, Alfredo Parrish.

Roberts was detained on Friday, with ICE saying he is in the country illegally from Guyana and was working as a superintendent despite having “a final order of removal and no work authorization.”

On Monday, the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners said it revoked Roberts’ administrator license. The Des Moines School Board voted unanimously Monday evening to put him on unpaid administrative leave and gave his attorney until noon Tuesday to provide proof that he is authorized to work in the U.S. or face termination.  

Parrish said his office on Monday filed a motion in immigration court in Omaha, Nebraska, to stay the educator’s order of removal.

“This is a very complex case,” Parrish said during a press briefing on Tuesday. “It’s complex, it’s difficult and there are a lot of what I would call a myriad of issues that are involved.” 

“What I would do is encourage people, as they review this case, to be patient, to take it a step at a time,” he added.

Parrish also shared a letter with reporters purportedly sent from Roberts’ previous attorney in Texas in March, stating that his immigration case “has reached a successful resolution” and was closed. The letter did not contain any further details on the resolution. 

Parrish said his office plans to file a motion to reopen Roberts’ immigration case on Tuesday.

Roberts entered 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 joined the Des Moines district in July 2023 and had previously held leadership positions in school districts across the U.S. for 20 years, according to school board chair Jackie Norris.

Norris said during Monday’s school board meeting that the board received documentation from the Department of Homeland Security that day indicating Roberts is an unauthorized worker in the U.S. It also received documentation of Roberts’ final order of removal issued by an immigration judge, she said.

The board was not aware of Roberts’ immigration issues at the time of his hiring, according to Norris, who said the board is taking ICE’s allegations “very seriously.”

“I want to be clear, at no point was any DMPS employee or board member notified that Dr. Roberts was not eligible to work by a federal agency or Dr. Roberts,” Norris said.

Norris said when Roberts applied for the superintendent position, he stated that he was a citizen and provided a driver’s license and a Social Security card as documentation. A law firm reviewed the information presented by Roberts and did not raise any concerns about his eligibility to work, she said.

Asked how Roberts had a social security number, Parrish said he didn’t want to respond, though went on to say, “As you may or may not know, certain people coming into this country are entitled to get a Social Security number.”

“That’s not our concern at the moment,” he added.

When Roberts was taken into custody on Friday, he was in possession of a loaded handgun and $3,000 in cash, ICE said.

Asked about the allegation of the loaded firearm, Parrish said he also could not comment on the facts of that, though he went on to say Roberts was in the military in Guyana and “led some of the most difficult raids on the biggest criminals.”

“In doing that type of work, he was a target, on some occasions, to be taken out by the cartel,” Parrish said.

According to the ICE detainee locator, Roberts is currently being held at the Woodbury County Jail in Sioux City, Iowa. He is in “good spirits,” Parrish said.

“We want you to know that Dr. Roberts’ greatest concern is about his students who he actually loves, and the students who love him back,” Parrish said.

Meanwhile, Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn said Tuesday a “state-level investigation” into Roberts’ hiring is underway.

“Local leaders owe parents an explanation, and we need stronger safeguards to ensure that positions of public trust are filled by individuals who are properly vetted and legally authorized to serve,” he said in a statement.

The firm that performed the background check on Roberts prior to his hiring by Des Moines Public Schools told ABC News it was “not contracted to perform I-9 or work eligibility verification.” 

“By standard practice, the employer is solely responsible for completing I-9 verification and determining employment eligibility,” Baker-Eubanks CEO Kim Cockerham said in a statement.

“We identified and disclosed all publicly available criminal records at that time, and those findings were provided to J.G. Consulting, the executive search firm, which then shared the information with its client, the Des Moines School District. The District ultimately chose to proceed with the hire despite having received the disclosed criminal record information,” Cockerham said.

Roberts has weapon possession charges from February 2020, according to ICE.

Prior to serving as superintendent in Des Moines, Roberts was superintendent of the Millcreek Township School District in Pennsylvania from August 2020 through June 2023.

The Millcreek Township School District said in a statement Monday that Roberts went through an FBI background check, completed I-9 eligibility forms and supplied documentation to support his eligibility to work. The district said it “never received any information or notification regarding the expiration of Dr. Roberts’ work authorization” and called reports of his detention “deeply concerning.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.