Former Des Moines Schools superintendent taken into DOJ custody on federal firearms, immigration charges

The former Iowa school district superintendent detained by immigration authorities last week has been taken into custody by the Justice Department.

Ian Roberts, who led Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS), was no longer in the custody of the Woodbury County Jail in Sioux City, about 150 miles northwest of Des Moines, Sheriff Chad Sheehan said.

Roberts was taken into federal custody on an arrest warrant and made his first court appearance, the Justice Department said. He is charged with being unlawfully present in the United States while possessing firearms.

Federal prosecutors said Roberts, 54, was found with four firearms on Sept. 26 while living in the country illegally. He will remain detained in federal custody pending further proceedings.

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"We have no comment at this time," Roberts' attorney, Alfredo Parrish, said.

Authorities said the firearms were found in a vehicle and at Roberts' home.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOJ. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Iowa told Fox News it had "no public information to provide at this time."

Authorities said Roberts, who resigned as head of the state's largest school district earlier this week, was living and working in the United States illegally. He was arrested last week following a brief police chase, authorities said.

Roberts is fighting a deportation order to his native Guyana. Earlier this week, Parrish said Roberts believed, based on advice from a prior attorney in Texas, that his immigration case had been "resolved successfully."

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However, a DOJ criminal complaint said the attorney had only conveyed that the case was being closed in her office, not that it had been completed.

In addition to the deportation fight, an Iowa state board revoked Roberts' license to serve as superintendent. In a resignation letter submitted to DMPS through his lawyer, Roberts said he did not want to distract district leaders and teachers from focusing on education.

Hours later, the school board accepted his resignation.

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Meanwhile, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced Tuesday it would investigate whether the district engaged in racial discrimination by favoring minority applicants.