DES MOINES, Iowa — On Tuesday, hundreds of students walked out of middle and high schools across the city to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention of Ian Andre Roberts, the now-former superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district.
In the afternoon, several dozen students gathered at the State Capitol, calling for Roberts’ release from the Sioux City jail where he’s being held, and holding signs reading “Radical Empathy,” a tagline he frequently used.
“I don’t think anyone really cares about the fact he’s illegal,” said Gabriel Doyle Scar, 17, who helped organize the protest. “We’re just sad about the fact that an extremely nice man that supported us heavily and really strongly is now taken away from us.”
During rush hour that night, roughly 20 people displayed a banner from a bridge over the interstate that cuts across the center of the city reading “Free Dr. Roberts,” as dozens of cars and large trucks honked in support as they passed underneath.
Roberts had been the superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools when ICE arrested him early Friday, accusing him of being in the country without authorization. ICE has said he tried to evade arrest and was found with a loaded gun in his district-issued car, a hunting knife and $3,000 in cash. At a news conference earlier this week, his lawyer, Alfredo Parrish, didn’t discuss those allegations. Through Parrish, Roberts submitted a letter of resignation Tuesday, writing that he didn’t want to be a distraction while he tried to stop his deportation.
But neither his resignation nor the unanswered questions about his case have quelled the protests in Des Moines, the left-leaning capital of a Republican-led state. Instead, Roberts’ arrest has sparked a moment of mass mobilization in a sleepy city where protests are relatively rare.
“It’s very unusual,” Dave Peterson, a political science professor at Iowa State University, said of the daily protests, adding that for many, Roberts’ detainment was the first major moment in which the recent wave of ICE arrests truly hit home.
“This is a moment where people can express support for somebody who they value, somebody who’s an important part of the community, and be protesting against what ICE is doing more broadly,” he said.
Makhani Scearcy, 20, a college student standing with classmates outside the capitol Tuesday, made a similar point. “Definitely people truly love Dr. Roberts,” she said, “but he’s just one puzzle piece of just how insane things have been.”
Republicans in Iowa have called for investigations of the district’s hiring practices. U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, a Republican whose district includes Des Moines, said he is seeking further information from the Department of Homeland Security about the case, and he released a redacted excerpt of the May 2024 removal order for Roberts signed by a judge.
“Many of us in the community knew Dr. Roberts and trusted him, which makes it hurt even more that he spent so long providing us false information,” Nunn said this week on KCCI-TV of Des Moines.
Yet, in interviews with two dozen parents, colleagues and students this week, many expressed strong support for him, even as new questions about his background have trickled out.
“We were told by the current administration that they were going to get rid of people that didn’t belong here; that’s not what they’re doing,” said Justin Peters, a high school baseball coach in the district. “They’re getting rid of high-class people that are part of our community.”
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