Sioux City, Iowa (RI) — The school superintendent who’s in a western Iowa jail after being arrested by immigration agents last Friday is fighting a deportation order — but not his dismissal from Des Moines public schools. Alfredo Parrish is one of the attorneys working on Ian Roberts’ immigration case.
The Des Moines school board gave Roberts until noon Tuesday to provide documents proving he is eligible to work in the U.S. or he’d be fired. In the letter announcing his immediate resignation, Roberts said he did not want to distract the Board, educators and staff from focusing on educating the district’s students.
In May of 2024, a federal judge issued a deportation order for Roberts, and an appeal to reopen his case was rejected earlier this year. Parrish says Roberts thought everything was O.K. and his case was resolved in April.
The letter released to the media Tuesday from a partner in a Texas law firm indicated the case had reached a successful resolution. Parrish says Roberts’ new legal team has filed a motion to block the deportation of Roberts and they will be seeking to reopen Roberts’ immigration case. Parrish was asked why Roberts claimed to be a U.S. citizen and presented a Social Security card when he was filling out the paperwork to be paid by Des Moines Schools.
During a mid-day news conference, Parrish confirmed Roberts was born in Guyana in 1970, but declined to say whether Roberts was a U.S. citizen or if he was authorized to work in the U.S. Parrish says he hasn’t had access to Roberts’ immigration file yet.
Parrish indicated the case had been juggling throught the court system for several years, and it does not appear President Trump had any role in pressing for Roberts’ arrest. The U.S. Department of Justice announced shortly after the news conference that it had opened an investigation of Des Moines Public Schools to determine if it has race-based employment practices.
