Ian Roberts: the Best of the “Worst?”
People outside of Iowa believe that Des Moines is a desert of homogeneity. But Des Moines is a school district of 30,000 students speaking 100 different languages from 90 separate countries. About 21% of the district's students are Black and almost 33% are Hispanic.
During the 2022-23 school year, the school board conducted a closed, nationwide search for a new superintendent. They sought a leader who could increase reading and math skills, particularly among Black boys.
Ian Roberts was introduced as the new superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools on May 16, 2023. He was an animating spirit for growth and inspiration in Des Moines. Roberts wore bright pastel suits, flowered shirts, and track shoes. He took off running.
In the first few months, Roberts visited every school in the district: 60 schools spread across 90 square miles. He listened to students and teachers alike in their classrooms.
Roberts began visiting the homes of chronically absent students, a national problem since the pandemic. He would speak to the students and families directly to understand the challenges for that student. As Roberts explained to the Des Moines Register:
It’s not a negative visit. It’s a visit that is anchored in ‘I just want to check on you.’
His tool of communication was empathy, not punishment. His approach was to meet students and teachers face-to-face in the classrooms, in schools, and in their homes. Roberts understands that education occurs between people, not in administrative offices. Or in budgets or bathroom policies.
Roberts’ appointment was historic. He was the first person of color to lead the Des Moines Public Schools. Roberts told the Des Moines Register, July 25, 2024:
I certainly recognize the historical moment when I was selected as being the first person of color to lead Des Moines Public Schools. All my interactions with students, with their families ― certainly the time that I spent in classrooms ― looking at how students respond to me, the conversations, the questions that they asked really reinforces to me now that representation really does matter.
At the end of Roberts’ first year, Associate Superintendent Matt Smith told the Des Moines Register, July 25, 2024:
Dr. Roberts has done exactly what he said he was going to do from the onset, which is he's going to lead with a radical empathy and is going to be present both in the schools and in the community. And he's going to lead systemic change. And, I think, he's delivered on all three of those aspects.
—
Sunshine graced the fall colors in the trees on the morning of September 26, 2025. The type of heavenly day that makes the rest of Iowa weather bearable. Dr. Roberts was enroute to Windsor Elementary School to visit school children. He was going to race a second grader for fun. He was due at nine. He texted that he would be late. Then about 50 minutes later, Phil Roeder, communications director for the district, received a FaceTime call from the superintendent’s phone number. Someone was using Roberts’ phone to show Dr. Roberts standing with his hands behind his back surrounded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and the Iowa State Patrol.
ICE made a spectacle of his arrest—doubling up on state troopers in addition to ICE officers in tactical gear, as if they were entering combat against an army.
The Department of Homeland Security alleged that they confiscated $3,000 cash, a loaded handgun wrapped in a towel, and a hunting knife from the district-owned Jeep Roberts was driving. He was taken to the Pottawatomie County jail in Council Bluffs, Iowa, 128 miles away.
At 12:42 that day, School Board President, Jackie Norris, posted the news of the arrest online. Within minutes, Republican politicians, saturated the news with bombastic statements and feigned outrage, turning a personnel issue into political conflict. Members of the School Board received death threats. Police increased security at their meetings.
On the same afternoon of September 26, Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson posted online:
He should be deported immediately. He should have never been anywhere around Iowa kids in the first place!
Republican Congressman Randy Feenstra posted on X, then quoted in the New York Times, September 29:
He should never be near children.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, told Republicans at a barbecue, reported on October 11 by the Des Moines Register:
Now he’s away from your children, and he’s being brought to justice as well…We are continuing to target the worst of the worst.
Roberts was very impressive in the hiring process. He appeared to be the best candidate on paper and in his interviews. He was scrutinized by two independent consulting firms, who both assured the district officials and a state licensing board that he was a United States citizen.
Roberts’ story demonstrated the vagaries of the immigration system. According to Department of Homeland Security officials, a court issued a “final order for removal” notice in May 2024. However, a year later, his Texas lawyer wrote to him:
I am pleased to report that your case has reached a successful resolution.
His arrest for an 18-month-old deportation notice did not require armed officers. He was not a fugitive or a flight risk. His arrest did not have to be a public spectacle.
Usually, a suspect in a prominent position is invited to surrender. Roberts was chased down in his car.
The next week, students walked out in protest: 300 students left Roosevelt High School carrying signs and chanting “education over deportation.” More than 150 students from Central Academy left class in a protest march to the Governor’s mansion. One of the students told reporters that Roberts was “someone who has put so much of his life into helping our educational systems in America.”
Ian Roberts had worked in American schools for nearly three decades, delivering a powerful impact, especially in Des Moines. The Republicans howled that he should never have been near children, when in fact the children in Des Moines loved him and wanted to be near him.
Does it matter how Roberts entered the country compared to the value of his public service? Donald Trump’s mass deportation strategy is like a needless forest fire consuming weeds and trees without reason. It is a policy that makes us despise our own origins.
Because each of us is an immigrant, with the exception of native Americans. We are a nation of immigrants. In the 19th and 20th century, the first whites in Iowa felt threatened by the arrivals of Irish, Italians, Germans and Scandinavians. They said that these immigrants were dangerous to society, they brought crime, they wouldn’t learn English.
In Eastern Iowa, German immigration forced politicians to give two speeches—one in English, then the same speech again in German. In Des Moines, Scandinavians spoke only Swedish at their own bank. At least two counties conducted business only in Dutch. Today the hostility to these groups is long gone, but Iowa without these ethnic groups is unimaginable. In fact, their ethnic distinctions are celebrated as heritage tourist attractions.
—-
As of November 16, 2025, ICE and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) were holding 65,135 people in detention across the United States, as tallied by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). (TRAC is a data gathering organization based at Syracuse University since 1989.) According to TRAC, 73.6% of the detainees have no criminal record, contrary to ICE claims that 70% have criminal records. The Migration Policy Institute and TRAC both found that most ICE criminal records are for minor traffic violations, such as driving with a broken taillight.
Stories of detentions, violations of civil rights, and deportations are reported every day all across the country. There are so many, occurring so quickly, that we are in danger of becoming numb to the outrage. Here are just two from the first week of November 2025 in Des Moines as reported in the Des Moines Register:
Leticia Jacobo was arrested and jailed for allegedly driving with a suspended license. The Des Moines police refused to let her go under a 287(g) detainer agreement with ICE. Polk County jailers agreed to assist ICE with paperwork, interrogation, and detention in order to hasten deportations. Leticia’s detainer meant that, even though she had not been convicted of a crime, she was to be jailed for an additional 48 hours. Leticia was born in Arizona, a member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. She showed her tribal identification card. She was not released, even though she has more right to be in America—her ancestral land—than any of us.
Jonathan Mercado turned 18 in August of this year. A native of El Salvador, he reported to the ICE office at the Federal Building in Des Moines for a hearing on his application for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, which prevents deportation for migrant children who have suffered abuse, neglect or abandonment. Mercado had been abandoned by his parents before he became a teenager.
Mercado never returned from the ICE office. There was no hearing. He was arrested, detained, transferred 80 miles north to the Hardin County jail, then transferred to the Louisiana detention center and then within two weeks he was deported to El Salvador with nothing but the clothes he was wearing.
As they did with Ian Roberts, ICE moves detainees quickly and often, making it difficult for friends and family to help, let alone find them. Immigrants are denied due process even though American law applies to everyone within our borders regardless of immigration status.
In 2017, Roberts married a woman from Florida, a US citizen. Newly married, he filed for authorization to work in the US. After receiving two one-year work authorizations, he applied three times for a green card—a permanent work visa. His applications were all denied without explanation.
With his arrest, Roberts’ wife’s right as a US citizen to freely marry is abrogated. As of this writing, Roberts remains in ICE custody at the Polk County jail in Des Moines.
Being in America without documentation is not a crime, it is a civil offense. President Trump’s deportation system and rhetoric spread the lie that immigrants are criminals. Today’s immigrants are no more criminal than the millions of immigrants who came before them. They came to America for the same reason that our ancestors did—to earn a living, raise a family safely, and follow their religion.
Secretary Noem called Roberts “the worst of the worst.” Ask any second grader at Windsor Elementary, ask any student in Des Moines and they will tell you that Ian Roberts is one of the best.
Dan Hunter is an award-winning playwright, songwriter, teacher and founding partner of Hunter Higgs, LLC, an advocacy and communications firm. H-IQ, the Hunter Imagination Questionnaire, invented by Dan Hunter and developed by Hunter Higgs, LLC, received global recognition for innovation by Reimagine Education, the world’s largest awards program for innovative pedagogies. Out of a field of 1200 applicants from all over the world, H-IQ was one of 12 finalists in December 2022. H-IQ is being used in pilot programs in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, North Carolina and New York. He is co-author, with Dr. Rex Jung and Ranee Flores, of A New Measure of Imagination Ability: Anatomical Brain Imaging Correlates, published March 22, 2016 in The Frontiers of Psychology, an international peer-reviewed journal. He’s served as managing director of the Boston Playwrights Theatre at Boston University, published numerous plays with Baker’s Plays, and has performed his one-man show ABC, NPR, BBC and CNN. Formerly executive director of the Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities (MAASH) a statewide advocacy and education group, Hunter has 25 years’ experience in politics and arts advocacy. He served as Director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs (a cabinet appointment requiring Senate confirmation). His most recent book, Atrophy, Apathy & Ambition,offers a layman’s investigation into artificial intelligence.