{"id":1952,"date":"2025-10-04T02:26:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T02:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=1952"},"modified":"2025-10-04T02:26:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T02:26:05","slug":"former-iowa-superintendent-charged-with-federal-firearms-offense-after-immigration-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=1952","title":{"rendered":"Former Iowa superintendent charged with federal firearms offense after immigration arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Des Moines, Iowa (AP)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 The\u00a0superintendent of Iowa\u2019s largest school district, who was detained last week by immigration agents, was charged Thursday in federal court with possessing firearms while in the US illegally, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Ian Roberts\u00a0resigned\u00a0this week as Des Moines\u2019 superintendent of schools, just days after he was pulled over and fled from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who ultimately arrested him with the help of officers from the Iowa State Patrol. When he was arrested,\u00a0federal agents found a handgun\u00a0that was wrapped in a towel inside the Jeep Cherokee he was driving, according to court papers.<\/p>\n

Roberts, who is originally from Guyana, had been jailed in Sioux City, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Des Moines, since late Friday afternoon. Officials said he was taken into custody on a federal arrest warrant for the weapons charge and appeared by video before a federal magistrate judge.<\/p>\n

Roberts\u2019 attorney, Alfredo Parrish, said his client will plead not guilty.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur position at this time \u2014 he has a presumption of innocence,\u201d Parrish said. \u201cHe will exercise his right to indicate to the court, if he is indicted, that he\u2019s not guilty,\u201d Parrish said, adding that there has not been an indictment returned by the grand jury.<\/p>\n

Roberts, 54, is alleged to have been in possession of four firearms, according to court documents. Authorities said Roberts had been authorized to work in the US between December 2018 and 2020 but has since \u201cnot had lawful employment authorization,\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Federal authorities said Roberts had a final removal order that was issued last year, and an immigration judge denied a motion to reopen Roberts\u2019 immigration case in April this year. The complaint released Tuesday alleged that Roberts had that final removal order in a different car at his residence.<\/p>\n

Roberts had been under the impression from a prior attorney that his immigration case was \u201cresolved successfully,\u201d his attorney has said.<\/p>\n

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Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Ian Roberts speaks with students during lunch at North High School, in Des Moines, Iowa, on May 1, 2024. – Zach Boyden-Holmes\/The Register\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt has been my pleasure to represent you throughout this process, and I am pleased to report that your case has reached a successful resolution,\u201d Texas attorney Jackeline Gonzalez wrote on March 27.<\/p>\n

An aide to Gonzalez confirmed to The Associated Press Tuesday that the law firm had represented Roberts but gave no immediate comment.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez spoke earlier this week to federal officials and said the letter she sent had informed Roberts \u201cthat the immigration case with Gonzalez\u2019s office was being closed,\u201d according to court papers. Roberts had an unpaid legal bill with her office.<\/p>\n

\u201cGonzalez added that the letter was not intended to convey\u201d that his case with the court had been completed, the court documents said.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez declined to tell authorities, however, about her communication with Roberts about the immigration judge\u2019s denial of the motion to reopen his case, which was sent to her office.<\/p>\n

One firearm, the one found under the driver\u2019s seat of his school-issued vehicle when he was arrested, was a pistol believed to have been purchased by Roberts\u2019 wife, authorities said. The other three \u2014 a pistol, a rifle and a shotgun \u2014 were found during a search of Roberts\u2019 home, the complaint said, and all were allegedly loaded.<\/p>\n

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at\u00a0CNN.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Des Moines, Iowa (AP)\u00a0\u2014 The\u00a0superintendent of Iowa\u2019s largest school district, who was detained last week by immigration agents,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-us"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1954,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions\/1954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}