Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Ian Roberts after allegedly fleeing when agents arrived to enforce a deportation order.
Roberts, originally from Guyana, has been under a final deportation order since May 2024. Despite that order, he continued to lead Iowa’s largest school district until his arrest this week.
What makes this case even more alarming is not only that Roberts remained in office unlawfully, but that he was paid handsomely for doing so.
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His current base salary exceeded $180,000 per year, and district officials were preparing to raise his base pay to $270,000. Over the course of his tenure, that means Roberts could have earned millions of dollars in taxpayer money while residing in the country illegally.
The district released a short statement claiming they had “no information” about the circumstances of his arrest. That explanation does not change the facts.
Federal records make clear that Roberts was under orders of removal. Yet the school board allowed him to remain in charge, responsible for nearly 30,000 students and one of the state’s largest budgets.
This is not the first controversy involving Roberts. He was previously detained in connection with carrying a firearm, though authorities never provided full details. That earlier incident was first noted in reports months ago, but new information about his contract and salary has raised the level of concern.
Parents and taxpayers now have to ask: how was an individual under deportation orders allowed not only to keep his job but to receive a six-figure salary funded by public money?
The political response has been predictable. Protests are already being organized to defend Roberts, portraying him as the victim rather than the perpetrator. That narrative ignores a basic truth.
A superintendent facing deportation should not be rewarded with a salary approaching $200,000, nor should a school board prepare to give him an even larger raise.
Families deserve better than a system that treats lawbreaking as a minor administrative detail.
Meanwhile, neighboring Iowa school districts are facing scandals of their own. Several teachers were fired in recent weeks after making grotesque comments celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Those incidents revealed a lack of professionalism in the classroom.
Roberts’ case reveals something even worse: a failure at the very top of the system, where the person in charge of tens of thousands of students was not legally permitted to remain in the United States.
This episode highlights why education reform is urgent. Schools cannot be led by individuals who disregard the law. Taxpayers cannot be forced to finance six-figure salaries for officials who are in the country illegally.
Parents cannot be asked to trust a system that tolerates misconduct from the classroom to the superintendent’s office.
Roberts’ arrest is a warning that public education has lost sight of accountability.
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