US immigration brokers have arrested the superintendent of the most important faculty district within the state of Iowa, accusing him of overstaying his pupil visa.
Superintendent of Des Moines Public Colleges Ian Andre Roberts was arrested on Friday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a fugitive warrant. He additionally faces a firearms offence.
Officers say that he’s a citizen of Guyana, and that his allow to work within the US expired in 2020. College district officers say they haven’t been informed the circumstances of his arrest, and have known as him an integral a part of the varsity group.
It comes amid a wider US crackdown on immigration, as President Donald Trump seeks to deport all unlawful migrants.
It’s unclear whether or not Mr Roberts has employed an lawyer to talk on his behalf.
Data present that he’s being jailed at an immigration detention centre close to the town of Des Moines.
In a press release, ICE stated that he was discovered “in possession of a loaded handgun, $3,000 in money and a hard and fast blade looking knife”.
The company stated that he initially fled from police in a automobile that had been supplied to him by the varsity district. Officers later discovered his deserted automobile and positioned him with the assistance of Iowa State Patrol.
In keeping with ICE, he has an present weapons cost from February 2020, and had initially entered the US on a pupil visa in 1999. A federal decide ordered him to be deported in 2024.
The investigation into the handgun discovered by officers is being turned over to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ICE stated, noting that’s unlawful for undocumented immigrants within the US to own firearms.
Earlier than main the district of round 30,000 college students in Iowa, he had beforehand labored as an educator in 4 different states, and earned school levels and credit from universities together with Georgetown and Harvard.
He additionally competed for Guyana in monitor and area on the 2000 Sydney Olympic Video games. He additionally participated in World Championships in Japan and Spain, in keeping with NBC Information.
A biography on the varsity district’s web site says that “he was born to immigrant dad and mom from Guyana, and spent most of his adolescence in Brooklyn, NY”. It provides that he “enjoys looking”.
College Board Chair Jackie Norris stated in a information convention on Friday that the board continues to be making an attempt to find out the details of his case.
“We should not have all of the details. There’s a lot we have no idea,” she stated, in keeping with The Des Moines Register newspaper.
“Nevertheless, what we do know is Dr Roberts has been an integral a part of our college group since he joined two years in the past.”
Native ICE Director Sam Olson stated in a press release that the arrest “needs to be a wake-up name for our communities to the good work that our officers are doing day-after-day to take away public security threats”.
“How this unlawful alien was employed with out work authorisation, a last order of removing, and a previous weapons cost is past comprehension and may alarm the dad and mom of that faculty district,” he added.
