The Justice Department opened an investigation Tuesday in the diversity hiring practices of the public school system in Des Moines, Iowa, just days after its superintendent was arrested for being an illegal immigrant.
The department said the school system has a policy of trying to match the diversity of its workforce to the diversity of its student body.
That includes a specific pipeline to siphon minority teachers from local universities into the classroom, guaranteeing at least a hiring interview for those who take part in the program.
“I have authorized a full investigation to determine whether DMPS is engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination as set forth above,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a letter announcing the probe.
It was addressed to Matthew Smith, who took over as acting superintendent in Des Moines this week after the school system booted Andre Ian Roberts, the illegal immigrant who had been serving in that post for two years.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mr. Roberts Friday, moving to enforce a final deportation order that an immigration judge had issued in 2024. Authorities say Mr. Roberts fled in his government-issued vehicle, then abandoned it and ran on foot before being tracked down.
When officers later searched his vehicle, they found a handgun, which, as an illegal immigrant, is against the law to possess.
The Washington Times has reached out to the school system for comment.
The investigation comes under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Ms. Dhillon pointed to part of the school system’s instructions to the superintendent to “not allow the composition of the teaching and learning staff to diverge regarding demographics and cultural responsivity, from the student population.”
In 2021, the system released an affirmative action plan that lays out race-based teacher recruitment goals. It set an 8% goal for “teachers of color” in kindergarten and first grade and a 5% goal for second through fifth grades.
It also called for “affinity spaces” and a plan “to lift up voices of our people of color” to expose areas that need work.
