The superintendent of the Des Moines Public Schools system will submit his resignation on Tuesday, his lawyer said, days after federal immigration agents arrested him and accused him of living and working illegally in the United States.
Ian Roberts, the superintendent, has been held in an Iowa jail since Friday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said that Dr. Roberts, who was born in Guyana and has long worked in school systems in the United States, had no legal status and had been ordered to leave the country last year.
“Out of concern for his 30,000 students, Dr. Roberts does not want to distract the board, educators and staff from focusing on educating D.M.P.S.’s students,” his lawyer, Alfredo Parrish, wrote in the letter, which he said he intended to send to the school board later on Tuesday.
In a news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Parrish did not directly address whether his client had ever had permission to work in the United States. Mr. Parrish said Dr. Roberts is seeking to have the order of deportation against him stayed, and is working on a motion to reopen his immigration case.
Mr. Parrish showed reporters a letter that he said had been sent to Dr. Roberts earlier this year by a Texas lawyer who had represented him in his immigration case. In that letter, the Texas lawyer wrote, “I am pleased to report that your case has reached a successful resolution.”
Jackeline Gonzalez, the Texas immigration lawyer who represented Dr. Roberts, said in an email that she was seeking her client’s permission to provide details about his case.
Over about two decades, Dr. Roberts had moved from state to state, building a national profile as a schools administrator. He wrote books, spoke at conferences and supported racial equity programs, sometimes drawing criticism from conservatives.
On Tuesday, hundreds of Des Moines high school students walked out of class to protest the detention of the superintendent, who had become a popular figure in the schools since he came to Des Moines to lead the system in 2023. Dr. Roberts, who was placed on paid leave on Saturday and unpaid leave on Monday, had been given a noon Tuesday deadline by the school board to provide documents refuting ICE’s claims that he was in the United States illegally.
The Des Moines School Board is scheduled to meet on Tuesday night to consider Dr. Roberts’s job status. A spokesman for the district said the resignation of an employee under contract requires board approval.
Mitch Smith is a Chicago-based national correspondent for The Times, covering the Midwest and Great Plains.
Ernesto Londoño is a Times reporter based in Minnesota, covering news in the Midwest and drug use and counternarcotics policy.
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