Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Superintendent of Des Moines, Iowa Schools Ian Andre Roberts, an illegal migrant from Guyana. Immigration officials issued Roberts a deportation order in May 2024.
Des Moines School Board Director Jackie Norris announced Friday morning that Associate Superintendent Matt Smith will step in as interim superintendent.
"This action follows Dr. Ian Roberts being detained by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents this morning. We have no confirmed information as to why Dr. Roberts is being detained or the next potential steps," the press release said.
Roberts began serving as superintendent in July 2023, after previously working as interim superintendent during the 2022–23 school year.”
"Our priority is to provide a safe, secure and outstanding education for all students and to support our students, families, and employees," Norris wrote in a letter to the school community. "The Board has the highest confidence in Mr. Smith’s leadership at this time. We know you have many questions, and we will provide updates as we learn more confirmed information."
Reports say Roberts fled from agents, but they later found him armed with both a knife and a gun.
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Before his career in the education field, Roberts was a member of the Guyana Olympic team for track and field. He competed in the 2000 Sydney Games as a mid-distance runner.
A senior ICE official revealed that Roberts first came to the United States on a student visa in 1991 and attended St. John's University. Immigration enforcement ordered Roberts removed from the country on May 22, 2024. A Texas immigration judge denied his attempt to reopen the case in April 2025.
Police arrested Roberts in 2020 on a weapons charge, adding to his record long before this latest scandal.
If Roberts is in the country illegally, how did he manage to get his hands on a firearm? This whole situation raises a number of questions and security concerns that need to be addressed immediately.
How was Roberts allowed to work in this governmental position without being a citizen of the United States? Or, at the very minimum, having legal authorization to work stateside? Was his hiring the result of DEI policies?
Regardless of the ‘how,’ what matters most is that ICE is carrying out the mission President Donald Trump gave them — and in the process, making the nation safer. The U.S. is a nation of laws. If a person crosses the border illegally, he demonstrates a lack of care or concern for our country's sovereignty.
A nation that does not have secure borders is at risk of not being a country at all. It is the task of the federal government to ensure the safety of its citizens. President Trump takes this part of the job very seriously.
The left will try to tell you this is racism. That anyone from anywhere should have the right to just walk across the border for any reason they please. Because that has worked out so well for Europe.
Living in America is a privilege. It's not a right. Come through the front door, don't sneak in the back window.
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