Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday detained the superintendent of the Des Moines Public Schools System, the president of the school board said in a statement.
Jackie Norris, the president of the board, she did not know why federal agents took Ian Roberts, the superintendent, into custody.
Ms. Norris said that an associate superintendent, Matt Smith, would lead the system temporarily.
“We have no confirmed information as to why Dr. Roberts is being detained or the next potential steps,” she wrote in a statement posted on the school board’s Facebook page.
A representative for ICE did not immediately respond to an email and a phone call seeking comment.
Dr. Roberts has led the school district since July 2023, according to his LinkedIn page. Dr. Roberts previously worked as a teacher in New York and Maryland and had been a track and field Olympic athlete.
A statement announcing his appointment as superintendent in 2023 said Dr. Roberts was “born to immigrant parents from Guyana, and spent most of his formative years in Brooklyn.”
The ICE detainee locator website showed that Dr. Roberts was being held at the Pottawattamie County Jail, in western Iowa. That page lists his country of birth as Guyana, a nation in South America.
Ernesto Londoño is a Times reporter based in Minnesota, covering news in the Midwest and drug use and counternarcotics policy.
Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for The Times.
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