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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Illegal migrant school superintendent on $305,000 a year is placed on leave after ICE arrest
2025-09-30
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The superintendent of Iowa's largest school district was placed on administrative leave on Saturday, one day after he was arrested by ICE agents for being in the country illegally.
A good idea, since he will be unavailable to do the job while tied up in his trial, jail term, and expulsion.
The Des Moines school district board voted unanimously to place Superintended Ian Roberts,
..elsewhere in the Rantburg archives as Ian Andre Roberts…
54, on paid leave because he would be unable to perform his duties for the 30,000-student district in light of his arrest.
See?
The board stated they would reassess Roberts's employment status for his $305,000 a year job once they received more information, and they were generally supportive of him.

After Roberts was arrested, school board chair Jackie Norris, who previously served as White House chief of staff for then-first lady Michelle Obama, asked for people to have 'radical empathy' as Roberts's case developed.

After the meeting where Roberts was placed on leave, Norris said his arrest had made for a 'jarring day,' but that officials 'do not have all the facts.'

'There is much we do not know,' she said. 'However, what we do know is that Dr. Roberts has been an integral part of our school community since he joined over two years ago.'

Republicans in the state legislature have launched an investigation into how Roberts was able to be hired in the first place.

After Roberts's arrest, more than 200 Des Moines residents swarmed the downtown Iowa area to protest.

Rallying protestors chanted 'free Dr. Roberts' and 'no justice no peace' while holding signs that read 'release our superintendent,' KCCI reported.

ICE said Roberts was arrested because he was in the country illegally, did not have work authorization and had been subject to a final removal order since May of last year.
ICE said Roberts was arrested because he was in the country illegally, did not have work authorization and had been subject to a final removal order since May of last year.

The agency also said he had a weapons possession charge dating from February 2020 that was still pending.

Agents attempted to stop Roberts while he was driving in a school-issued car before he sped away into a wooded area and abandoned the vehicle. Iowa State Patrol later found him hiding in a brush south of the abandoned car.

Police said they found a loaded gun, a fixed blade hunting knife and $3,000 cash in his car.

Roberts was held in the Woodbury County Jail in Sioux City, in northwest Iowa, about 150 miles from Des Moines.

'This suspect was arrested in possession of a loaded weapon in a vehicle provided by Des Moines Public Schools after fleeing federal law enforcement,' said ICE Enforcement Removal Operations St. Paul Field Office Director Sam Olson.

'How this illegal alien was hired without work authorization, a final order of removal, and a prior weapons charge is beyond comprehension and should alarm the parents of that school district.'

[X]



Related:
Des Moines: 2025-09-27 They found him hiding in a shrubbery.
Des Moines: 2025-07-04 Pork chop on a stick, bacon-wrapped 'Twinkie' and other odd foods dominate iconic [IA] state fair
Des Moines: 2024-12-19 Trump Files Lawsuit Against Des Moines Register, Pollster J. Ann Selzer
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