Former Des Moines Superintendent Ian Roberts Arrested By ICE

Bruh — what should we make of a Guyanese immigrant accused of being in the U.S. illegally, who is so far from the violent, hardened criminals the Trump administration claims it is cracking down on that he managed to rise to the ranks of public school superintendent of Des Moines, Iowa?

Meet now former Des Moines Public School Superintendent Ian Roberts.

According to ABC News, Roberts, 54, joined the district in July 2023 after holding leadership positions in school districts across the U.S. for 20 years. On Tuesday, Roberts handed in his resignation. On Thursday, he was arrested and held at an ICE detention center at the Woodbury County Jail in Sioux City. According to the complaint, Roberts, a native of Guyana, entered the U.S. in 1999 on a student visa that expired in 2004, and had no work authorization in the U.S. at the time he was hired by the Des Moines School Board. According to the board’s chair, Jackie Norris, board officials had no idea about his immigration issues.

But how? How did we even get here?

From ABC:

According to the complaint, Roberts applied with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for permanent residence four times — once in 2001 and three times in 2018 — but was denied.

He also applied in 2018 for an adjustment of status based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen, but it was denied in January 2020 because he “failed to respond to a request for additional information,” according to the complaint.

Roberts has not had lawful employment authorization since December 2020, according to the complaint.

He was ordered removed from the U.S. on May 22, 2024, in a hearing he was not present for, and an immigration judge denied his motion to reopen immigration proceedings in April, finding that Roberts had failed to demonstrate that he did not receive notice of the 2024 hearing.

Roberts resigned as superintendent a day after the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners said it revoked Roberts’ administrator license and the Des Moines School Board voted unanimously to put him on unpaid administrative leave and provide proof that he is authorized to work in the U.S. or face termination. He did not provide the board with that information, according to Norris.

“For all of us, this is not what we anticipated when we welcomed Dr. Ian Roberts into central Iowa and the Des Moines School District a little more than two years ago,” Norris said during a special session on Tuesday, during which the board voted to accept Roberts’ resignation. “It is a sad and troubling end for an individual who gave many people, especially our students, hope.”

What the board was aware of, apparently, is that not all of Roberts’ educational credentials were legitimate.

In fact, during a board meeting on Wednesday, there was “speculation” that Roberts’ resume included a falsehood regarding his time at Morgan State University. The board noted that his resume claimed he had a doctorate from the university, but during the background check, it was discovered that he never completed that degree, which didn’t prevent him from being hired.

“The Board was aware Dr. Roberts did not graduate from Morgan State University at the time of his hiring,” board officials said in a statement, noting that he provided a revised resume, noting that the degree was not completed, and that’s the version they had at the time finalists for the position were being interviewed.

Now, let’s talk about the things anti-immigrant MAGA supporters might find concerning (or at least pretend to for purely xenophobic reasons).

At the time of Roberts’ arrest, he had a loaded handgun and a fixed-blade hunting knife. The pistol was “wrapped in a towel under the driver’s seat,” according to a federal criminal complaint, and was purchased in Arkansas from a federally licensed dealer by someone who is believed to be his spouse. After searching his home on Friday, officers found a loaded pistol underneath the seat cushion of a chair in the living room, a loaded rifle in a bedroom closet, and a shotgun behind a headboard in the bedroom. All four guns were found to be manufactured outside of Iowa and “therefore crossed a state line before Roberts possessed them,” according to the complaint, which has resulted in Roberts being charged by federal prosecutors with one count of being an “illegal alien in possession of firearms.” Apparently, the Second Amendment enthusiasts believe a person’s need to keep themselves, their families, and their homes protected ends when they have questionable legal status.

Then there’s the issue of him allegedly being a registered voter.

More from ABC:

Following his detainment by ICE, state elections officials in Maryland said that a man whose name matches that of Roberts was registered to vote in the state, but they say there’s no record of him casting a ballot. A person matching his name, birthdate and address registered as a Democrat in 2017, according to the Maryland voter registration database.

The elections board of Maryland declined to confirm that the registered voter is in fact the former superintendent in a statement released earlier this week. The board noted in a statement that individuals are prohibited from securing voter registration unlawfully but outlined a scenario in which an ineligible voter could be “unintentionally registered to vote” via an automatic voter registration agency, such as the state’s Motor Vehicle Agency.

Unsurprisingly, that explanation did not satisfy Republican members of the Maryland House of Delegates.

“Our concern is, if it’s been done once, why can’t it be done twice, and maybe many, many times more,” GOP Maryland State Delegate Matt Morgan, the chair of the Freedom Caucus, told ABC. “My biggest concern is how many other people there are like him.”

As we have previously reported, virtually every study done on the issue of undocumented immigrants voting in U.S. elections shows it is an extremely rare occurrence, and when it does happen, it is investigated just like any election crime. There is zero evidence that “illegal” immigrants are voting, or that any anecdotal cases of undocumented migrants voting or attempting to vote have been significant enough to impact election results. Unfortunately, facts and data don’t tend to matter to people who just don’t want Black and brown foreigners in their country, as demonstrated by the fact that Republicans have continued to lie about “illegal citizens” voting in our elections.

SEE ALSO:

What About White Undocumented Immigrants?

Trump’s Dangerous Proposal To Deport All Undocumented Immigrants