US immigration agents have arrested the superintendent of the largest school district in the state of Iowa, accusing him of overstaying his student visa.
Superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools Ian Andre Roberts was arrested on Friday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a fugitive warrant. He also faces a firearms offence.
Officials say that he is a citizen of Guyana, and that his permit to work in the US expired in 2020. School district officials say they have not been told the circumstances of his arrest, and have called him an integral part of the school community.
It comes amid a wider US crackdown on immigration, as President Donald Trump seeks to deport all illegal migrants.
It is unclear whether Mr Roberts has hired an attorney to speak on his behalf.
Records show that he is being jailed at an immigration detention centre near the city of Des Moines.
In a statement, ICE said that he was found “in possession of a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash and a fixed blade hunting knife”.
The agency said that he initially fled from police in a vehicle that had been provided to him by the school district. Officers later found his abandoned vehicle and located him with the help of Iowa State Patrol.
According to ICE, he has an existing weapons charge from February 2020, and had originally entered the US on a student visa in 1999. A federal judge ordered him to be deported in 2024.
The investigation into the handgun found by officers is being turned over to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ICE said, noting that is illegal for undocumented immigrants in the US to possess firearms.
Before leading the district of around 30,000 students in Iowa, he had previously worked as an educator in four other states, and earned college degrees and credits from universities including Georgetown and Harvard.
He also competed for Guyana in track and field at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. He also participated in World Championships in Japan and Spain, according to NBC News.
A biography on the school district’s website says that “he was born to immigrant parents from Guyana, and spent most of his formative years in Brooklyn, NY”. It adds that he “enjoys hunting”.
School Board Chair Jackie Norris said in a news conference on Friday that the board is still trying to determine the facts of his case.
“We do not have all the facts. There is much we do not know,” she said, according to The Des Moines Register newspaper.
“However, what we do know is Dr Roberts has been an integral part of our school community since he joined two years ago.”
Local ICE Director Sam Olson said in a statement that the arrest “should be a wake-up call for our communities to the great work that our officers are doing every day to remove public safety threats”.
“How this illegal alien was hired without work authorisation, a final order of removal, and a prior weapons charge is beyond comprehension and should alarm the parents of that school district,” he added.
By BBC News
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