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Tag: Dr. Roberts

  • Ice detains superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district

    The superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents on Friday, prompting shock among fellow educators.

    Ian Roberts, the superintendent of Des Moines public schools (DMPS), was apprehended on Friday morning, according to the district’s board chair. “We have no confirmed information as to why Dr Roberts is being detained or the next potential steps,” said Jackie Norris in a press release on Friday. The district also named an interim superintendent.

    Roberts appears to be held at the Pottawattamie county jail, about two hours west of Des Moines, according to the Ice online detainee database. The database lists Roberts’s country of birth as Guyana.

    In a statement to the Guardian, DHS said that Roberts was arrested because he had “a final order of removal and no work authorization”.

    “During a targeted enforcement operation on Sept 26, 2025, officers approached Roberts in his vehicle after identifying himself, but he sped away. Officers later discovered his vehicle abandoned near a wooded area. State Patrol assisted in locating the subject and he was taken into ICE custody,” the agency shared in a statement. “Roberts has existing weapon possession charges from February 5, 2020. Roberts entered the United States in 1999 on a student visa and was given a final order of removal by an immigration judge in May of 2024.”

    Norris said a state board had granted Roberts a license to serve as superintendent in 2023 and that the district has been unable to verify Ice’s claims about his immigration status.

    In a joint statement, the presidents of unions representing teachers and other school employees in Iowa said that Roberts had been a “tremendous advocate for students, families, staff, and the community” and expressed shock at his arrest.

    “His leadership and compassion for all students, regardless of background, identity, or family origin, are a beacon of light in one of the state’s most diverse school districts,” said Joshua Brown, the Iowa State Education Association president, and Anne Cross, the Des Moines Education Association president, in a joint statement. “It is a dark and unsettling time in our country. This incident has created tremendous fear for DMPS students, families, and staff.”

    Matt Smith, a Des Moines schools official who was appointed Friday to serve as interim superintendent, said members of the community felt “sad, outraged and helpless” after learning of Roberts’s detention.

    In media interviews and biographies, Roberts has said he was raised in Brooklyn, New York, by Guyanese immigrant parents. A 2023 statement from the district announcing Roberts’s appointment said he was “born to immigrant parents from Guyana, and spent most of his formative years in Brooklyn”. In 2023, he became the first person of color to be named to the position of superintendent in Iowa’s largest school district. He is a former Olympic athlete who competed as a middle-distance runner for Guyana in the 2000 Sydney games.

    Court records in Pennsylvania show that Roberts pleaded guilty in January 2022 to a minor infraction for unlawfully possessing a loaded firearm in a vehicle, and was fined. The case stemmed from a citation in Erie county issued the prior month by a Pennsylvania game commission officer, who stopped Roberts as he was finishing a day of deer hunting on state lands.

    Roberts said at the time he was a longtime licensed hunter and gun owner, and that he had left his hunting rifle on the seat of his vehicle in plain view to ensure the officer did not feel threatened during their interaction. He said that he was shocked when the officer cited him for doing so, but that he pleaded guilty to avoid any distraction. He questioned whether his dark skin may have played a role in the case.

    “I may not appear to be the ‘type of man’ who would enjoy deer season in Pennsylvania, in fact, I am and have been hunting for more than 20 years,” Roberts wrote in a social media post then.

    Earlier this year, after Donald Trump’s administration removed restrictions on Ice officers searching schools, churches and other sensitive locations, Roberts and the leaders of other regional school districts issued guidelines for parents and families enrolled in public schools.

    In a letter to parents, Roberts said that schools would comply with warrants from immigration officers, and that agents seeking information about students would be directed to administrators.

    “Everyday Des Moines Public Schools does everything we can within our legal and moral authority to support students, which is always our top priority,” he said.

    The district said it was awaiting updates on Roberts’s situation. “We know you have many questions, and we will provide updates as we learn more confirmed information. We thank you and appreciate your support,” said Norris.

    • This article was amended on 26 September 2025. An earlier version said Ian Roberts was born in Brooklyn, based on past interviews. However, a 2023 statement from the district says he was “born to immigrant parents from Guyana, and spent most of his formative years in Brooklyn”.

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  •  Highs and Lows on the Family Farm

    At 55 years old, Willie Scott (above) has been farming ever since he could walk. Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice

    At 55 years old, Willie Scott has been farming ever since he could walk. 

    “The first thing I learned to drive was a tractor at seven,” said the Collins, Georgia native. 

    His 800-acre, third-generation family farm in Tatnall County was passed down from his grandfather to his father and eventually to Scott. The farm has been in the family since his grandfather purchased it in the 1940s.

    In the more than 30 years that he has run his commercial farm, Scott has seen some high moments, like the surge in cotton prices around 2021, a past partnership with Target, and simply doing something he loves for a living, he said. However, being in this business also has its low moments. Just this past month, he has been hit with a challenge that neither he nor researchers fully understand.

    It’s tiny—smaller than a gnat at about one-tenth of an inch. It flies from leaf to leaf, pale green with a brown spot on each of its itty-bitty wings. The green leaf hopper, Amrasca bigtulla, better known as cotton jassid, is rapidly spreading across Georgia’s cotton belt, according to the Georgia Department of Agriculture (USDA), impacting more than 40 counties and farms across the state, including Scott’s.

    In the more than 30 years that he has run his commercial farm, Scott (left) has seen some high moments, like the surge in cotton prices around 2021, a past partnership with Target, and simply doing something he loves for a living. Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice

    Georgia’s Cotton at Risk

    With cotton prices already low and demand dropping for U.S.-grown cotton, this little pest is just another setback for farmers. Georgia is one of the top cotton-producing states in the country, according to the USDA. Cotton stretches over more than a million acres here. That means when something like the jassid shows up, it puts Georgia’s cotton industry at risk, but could also impact others across the nation. 

    For the past six years, cotton has been Scott’s main revenue driver. Currently occupying over 400 acres of his land, he says the jassid has already touched most of it, leaving him searching for a way to stop the attack.

    How did they get here?

    The cotton jassid is native to the Indian subcontinent, according to Dr. Phillip Roberts, a cotton Extension entomologist and professor at the University of Georgia who has been researching the pest even before it reached Georgia. The insect first appeared in Puerto Rico in 2023, then in Florida in 2024, and was spotted in Georgia’s Seminole County on July 9, 2025.

    How it traveled to Georgia remains uncertain. “Who knows,” said Dr. Roberts. “Potentially, they could have moved up with the storm. We had a lot of hurricanes last year and could have pulled insects like them here to Georgia.”

    For the past six years, cotton has been Scott’s main revenue driver. Currently occupying over 400 acres of his land, Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice

    How does it spread?

    The pest feeds on the underside of cotton leaves, releasing a yellow toxin that weakens the plant’s ability to photosynthesize, according to a recent University of Georgia report. Though largely found on cotton, it also feeds on okra, eggplant, and sunflowers.

    “We can find this insect on nearly all of the cotton in the Coastal Plain, which is about 98% of Georgia’s crop,” said Dr. Roberts. Since July, it has been traced in more than 40 counties.

    Scott first heard about the jassid at a Georgia Cotton Committee meeting last month, where he serves on the board. Soon after, he spotted it in neighboring counties. “That’s when I got nervous,” he said. Within weeks, it was on his land.

    Walking through his fields, Scott points out the tiny, gnat-sized insects, their color blending into the leaves. “If you look really closely, you can see one right there,” he said, turning over a cotton leaf as a few of the pests crawled on the back. Their short lifespan means they can reproduce quickly, with females laying 18 to 30 eggs at a time and regenerating every two weeks, sometimes less.

    Even though the insects may be hard to see, the damage is not. “I lost all that cotton with the red at the top,” Scott said. Dr. Roberts’ research has shown that when the pest sucks the juice from the cotton plant, the leaves begin to shrivel, eventually turning red, and at that stage, there’s not much that can be done.

    Can it be stopped?

    Researchers at UGA Cooperative Extension and the Georgia Cotton Commission are testing insecticides, including Bidrin, Argyle, Assailas, Carbine, Centric, Transform, Sefina, Sivanto, and Bifenthrin. So far, Bidrin has been the most consistent among commercial farmers.

    Scott is currently spraying Bidrin. He says it appears to be working, but he’s waiting to see how effective it really is.

    Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice

    At such an inconvenient time

    The jassid arrived at a financially crushing time for many cotton farmers. “The cotton market right now is really bad,” said Dr. Camp Hand, a Georgia cotton agronomist and professor at UGA. “If you were to book some [cotton] right now for December, it would sell for about 67 cents a pound, which is way below the price it takes to produce the crop.” Prices have been consistently that low since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

    An acre of cotton yields about 880 pounds, or roughly $589 in sales. For Scott, production costs run about $700 per acre, leaving him at a loss similar to many other cotton farmers. The pesticides alone add another $20 per acre. If the insecticide doesn’t work, Scott estimates he could lose around $8,000. “The only thing we can do is just hope and pray that what we’re doing works,” he said.

    Although consumers may not bear the added costs, farmers like Scott are the ones paying for it. The price of cotton is set on the global market, leaving farmers with little control over how much their crop is worth. As cotton prices have decreased over the past few years, demand for U.S. cotton has declined, as more people turn to synthetic fabrics like polyester, both Scott and Dr. Hand explained.

    To make matters worse, the jassid arrived just before harvest season, which is typically October through November. Scott said harvesting the cotton early is not a good option, as cotton bolls have not yet matured.

    Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice

    What’s next?

    When asked about the potential long-term impact of this pest and solutions, Dr. Hand said, “That’s the million-dollar question. Right now, we’re just trying to survive 2025.”

    Despite the unexpected challenge, Scott refuses to be discouraged. “It’s kind of like football—you’re trying to score that touchdown, and different things are out there trying to stop you. But you’ve got to have in your mind to say, ‘I’m getting to the end zone.’”

    Tabius McCoy, Report for America Corp Member

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