Posted on | September 27, 2025 | No Comments
People in Iowa and around the country are mystified by this situation. How did this guy get hired? And how much of his biographical information is actually true? The story from the Des Moines Register:
Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Ian Roberts was arrested by U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement for allegedly being in the United States illegally, according to federal officials.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed Roberts’ Friday, Sept. 26, arrest and detention and said a court had issued a “final order of removal” in May 2024 for the deportation of the Guyana native and longtime U.S. resident.
She said Roberts abandoned his car and fled from police on Friday, and was allegedly in possession of a loaded handgun, a large amount of cash and a hunting knife. He was arrested in what DHS described as a “targeted enforcement operation.”
At a 3 p.m. news conference, School Board Chair Jackie Norris said the district was still working to learn more about what happened.
“We do not have all the facts. There is much we do not know,” she said. “However, what we do know is Dr. Roberts has been an integral part of our school community since he joined two years ago.” . . .
In a statement Friday evening, the district said it “has not been formally notified by ICE about this matter, nor have we been able to talk with Dr. Roberts since his detention.”
Roberts, 54, has served as Des Moines Public Schools superintendent since July 2023.
In an emailed statement, DHS called Roberts a “criminal illegal alien.”
Roberts allegedly sped away when officers approached his vehicle and identified themselves, and officers found his vehicle abandoned in a nearby wooded area. Inside was the handgun, $3,000 in cash and the hunting knife, the department said.
Roberts official DMPS bio says “he enjoys hunting.”
In response to the reports of the loaded gun reportedly found in Roberts’ vehicle, the district said Friday evening that its policy dictates that weapons are “prohibited on school grounds or at a school-sponsored or school-related activity.”
DHS states that Roberts has “existing weapon possession charges” from Feb. 5, 2020. It’s not clear where those charges were filed or whether they were resolved. Records of those existing charges were not immediately available or provided Friday.
“Dr. Roberts has a previous firearm charge related to a hunting rifle, which he disclosed to the DMPS Board during the hiring process. He provided sufficient context and explanation of the situation to move forward in the hiring process. He has also spoken publicly about this experience,” DMPS said in a release.
However, that charge was from 2021 in Pennsylvania.
(Raising the question, was his previous explanation true? Or did he come up with this story about a hunting rifle — as if there had been some kind of misunderstanding — to cover up something else?)
In its statement Friday evening, the district said a third-party comprehensive background check had been conducted on Roberts and he would have been required to verify employment eligibility for all employees.
“In this case, Dr. Roberts completed the I-9 employment eligibility verification form and submitted the required documentation,” reads the statement from Phil Roeder, the districts’ director of communications and public affairs.
The statement also said the district had no knowledge of Roberts’ order of removal.
Roberts grew up in Brooklyn, New York City. Federal records and previous reporting said he was born in Guyana. Before a career in education, Roberts competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games in track and field for Guyana as a mid-distance runner.
(Really? Do we believe any of that now?)
Roberts became the superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools in July 2023. He succeeded longtime Superintendent Tom Ahart, who resigned at the end of the 2021-2022 school year.
The DHS statement says Roberts entered the United States on a student visa in 1999. It also states that Roberts was working for the school district despite having no work authorization.
“This suspect was arrested in possession of a loaded weapon in a vehicle provided by Des Moines Public Schools after fleeing federal law enforcement,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations St. Paul Field Office Director Sam Olson said. “This should be a wake-up call for our communities to the great work that our officers are doing every day to remove public safety threats. How this illegal alien was hired without work authorization, a final order of removal, and a prior weapons charge is beyond comprehension and should alarm the parents of that school district.”
DHS also accused Roberts of violating federal law by possessing a handgun while in the U.S. without legal authorization, and said it was referring him to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for further investigation.
Norris, the chair of the Des Moines Public Schools board, said Roberts received a valid license from the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners in 2023 before beginning his tenure with Des Moines. She said there is “new information that has been made public” but said the board has not yet been able to verify additional details.
Let’s do some math here: Ian Roberts is now reported to be 54 years old. That means he would have been about 28 when he obtained a student visa in 1999, and nearly 30 at the time he claims to have completed in the Sydney Olympics. Do we really believe that Roberts was such an Olympic-caliber runner that he was still on the Guyana national team at age 29? Also, what about the claim that he “grew up in Brooklyn”? Is there any evidence of that? Or is it just something Roberts wove into his personal narrative — like his alleged love of hunting — to conceal the more likely reality that he overstayed his student visa, fraudulently obtained a Social Security number and has been working illegally in the U.S. for more than 20 years? Does he actually have a doctorate degree, even?
The report that Roberts “received a valid license from the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners” doesn’t do anything to clarify matters. If Roberts is an imposter — essentially engaging in fraud for two decades — it might be difficult for any licensing board to detect such a fraud, once he obtains his first teaching license. We don’t have enough documented facts at this point to know what actually happened in the years since Roberts arrived on a student visa. Where did he begin his teaching career? How was he able to get hired to that first job? Did he have a legal work permit?
Something is clearly off in this story, but I doubt anyone at the Des Moines school board is interested in doing the kind of investigation that would discover the truth about who “Doctor Roberts” really is.
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