On Friday, my colleague Ward Clark covered the shocking story of the arrest by ICE of an illegal alien from Guyana who was under a deportation order during the Biden Autopen administration. Not so shocking? Just wait.
The man ICE arrested was the Superintendent of Des Moines, Iowa, Public Schools. His name: Dr. Ian Andre Roberts, a former Olympian and feted special education teacher, principal, district leader, and leadership trainer. It takes time to build that sort of curriculum vitae. According to DHS records, Roberts entered the country in 1999 on a student F-1 visa, received a deportation order on May 22, 2024, and a Dallas immigration judge denied a motion to reopen the case on April 24, 2025. When ICE came to pick Roberts up, he fled the scene in his school-subsidized automobile. Roberts abandoned the vehicle after a chase and went rabbit. According to ICE, the car contained a loaded Glock, a “fixed blade hunting knife,” and $3,000 in cash. According to the Iowa Department of Education records, a full-time superintendent for this Des Moines school district earns $270,000 annually; so, I guess that cash is normal walking-around money. Must be nice.
Thanks to K9 dogs, Roberts was found 200 yards away from his car, attempting to hide in the high grass.
Clark wrote:
This man's story smells to high heaven. And what's up with the Des Moines school system? To rise to the position of Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Ian Andre Roberts would have had to have been in the system for some time. Did they not do any due diligence on this guy? Not even the most elementary background check? Not even verifying that he was in the country legally, and eligible for employment?
Read it Here: Wait, What? Iowa School Superintendent Is an Illegal Alien
It continues to grow more odiferous. The chair of the Des Moines School Board, who also worked as chief of staff to former first lady Michelle Obama, asked that we employ "radical empathy" before we pre-judge Roberts and his actions.
Chaser: Norris is also running as a Democrat in Iowa for U.S. Senate, in an attempt to flip the seat of retiring Republican Joni Ernst. What a wicked web we weave.
WATCH:
The school board chair of the district that hired the deportation-ordered illegal immigrant with gun charges to be super intendant has responded by calling for…radical empathy, a favorite social justice phrase.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) September 28, 2025
This is in Iowa.
Iowa.
pic.twitter.com/vjS1GjjXZt
After this song and dance by Norris, the board had a closed-door meeting and voted to place Roberts on administrative leave. The Iowa Board of Educational Examiners did not wait on "the facts" as BOE Chair Jackie Norris sees them, but chose to go with the concrete evidence presented by DHS. They revoked Roberts' administrative license.
JUST IN: The Iowa Board of Educational Examiners has revoked the administrator license of Dr. Ian Roberts, superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, after his detainment by ICE last Friday.
— Meghan MacPherson (@meghankmac) September 29, 2025
"Our office has received information that you no longer possess legal presence in… pic.twitter.com/xe5sP66z3w
JUST IN: The Iowa Board of Educational Examiners has revoked the administrator license of Dr. Ian Roberts, superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, after his detainment by ICE last Friday.
"Our office has received information that you no longer possess legal presence in the United States, therefore you not able to hold a license issued by the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners (Iowa Code 256, Iowa Administrative Code 282). The license issued by the Board of Educational Examiners is no longer valid and your authority to serve as superintendent is revoked."
Despite documented evidence and holes in Roberts' past that you could drive a semi truck through, the usual suspects protested in front of the federal courthouse.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the federal courthouse in Des Moines following the arrest, calling for Roberts’s release. Some carried signs that read “Free Dr Roberts.” Teachers from neighboring school districts joined students and parents at the protest, according to CNN.
Before we dive into Roberts' past, I have questions. I thought that illegal aliens were just poor and disenfranchised men and women trying to escape hardship or persecution and make a better life for themselves? That they were only here to do the job that Americans won't do? Riddle me this: How many American men and women were disenfranchised when a teaching or coaching position was given to Roberts? How many Black Americans — descendants of slaves — were in that number? These same AWLFs who advocate and virtue signal for the likes of men like Roberts ultimately end up giving the people they claim to be championing for: American-born women and minorities, the shaft.
Now let's dig into Roberts' terribly inconsistent record. Here's the information from the Des Moines district's webpage, which someone smartly archived, because you know it's going to be scrubbed clean sometime this coming week. If Roberts' birthplace was in Guyana and he officially represented his country of Guyana in the 2000 Olympics, how did he manage to spend his formative years in Brooklyn?
Dr. Roberts proudly shares that he was born to immigrant parents from Guyana, and spent most of his formative years in Brooklyn, NY. He graduated with a B.S. degree from Coppin State University, earned Masters degrees from St. John’s University and Georgetown University, and received his doctorate in Urban Educational Leadership from Trident University. He also has received several education-related certificates, including the Harvard University Improving Schools: The Art of Leadership certificate.
Attorney Laura Powell also points to discrepancies in his origin story.
Roberts is quoted in 2020 referring to Guyana as his birthplace and saying that his father immigrated to the United States in the 1980s and his mother in the 2000s. But in a 2024 local news story, he claims he was born in Brooklyn and raised by a single mother. His Facebook lists… pic.twitter.com/0LDZrHXBAi
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) September 27, 2025
Roberts is quoted in 2020 referring to Guyana as his birthplace and saying that his father immigrated to the United States in the 1980s and his mother in the 2000s. But in a 2024 local news story, he claims he was born in Brooklyn and raised by a single mother. His Facebook lists two secondary schools in Guyana as alma maters.
Roberts has held various educational positions across multiple municipalities and states, most notably, D.C., Pennsylvania, Missouri, New York, and Iowa. These educational trusts normally require serious vetting and background checks. According to his Des Moines school district bio, Roberts himself evaluated and vetted principals in his districts. The larger question is, who failed to vet him thoroughly?
Dr. Roberts came to Des Moines after serving as Superintendent of the Millcreek Township (PA) School District for three years, where his focus was culturally responsive, quality and equity-based instructional leadership that prepared every student for college or a career. Prior to that, he served as the St. Louis Public Schools (MO) High School Network Superintendent, where he coached, supported, and evaluated middle, high school and alternative school principals. His educational career also includes positions in Baltimore, MD, Washington D.C., South Bronx, NY, and across the country. While in the nation’s capital he was named the George Washington University’s 2013 Washington D.C. Principal of the Year.
Powell points out that there were issues with onboarding Roberts for his employment as a Superintendent of the Millcreek Township in PA. However, the school board found a workaround to keep him in their district. Roberts worked there for three years and received board ratings of "meets expectations." Not exactly a glowing endorsement for someone whose work was supposedly so critical to the educational space. Apparently, on his way out the door from Millcreek, Roberts was part of a $250,000 settlement given to an HR director under his auspices who resigned right around the same time.
At this point, the stench of mendacity has become nauseating.
Roberts was superintendent for Millcreek Township for three years. Each year the board gave him a rating of “meets expectations”—the equivalent of a grade of C on their 5-point scale. His replacement has received a rating of “outstanding”—their top mark—each year.
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) September 28, 2025
These poor… pic.twitter.com/ZC3nF3H9FM
Roberts was superintendent for Millcreek Township for three years. Each year the board gave him a rating of “meets expectations”—the equivalent of a grade of C on their 5-point scale. His replacement has received a rating of “outstanding”—their top mark—each year.
These poor ratings for Roberts came before the board even knew that he would make personnel decisions that would cost the district significant sums in legal settlements.
Powell also scanned Roberts' LinkedIn profile and found evidence of overlapping educational and work experiences that just don't add up.
During the years that Roberts supposedly was earning numerous graduate degrees, he also claims to have been continuously employed, as a teacher for a few years, then as a school administrator for almost two decades. His LinkedIn indicates that he was moonlighting as an “Executive… pic.twitter.com/lgUvzNnaCp
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) September 27, 2025
Who knew being the school superintendent of the largest school district in Iowa was such an easy gig, he could simultaneously work another full-time job. pic.twitter.com/vhtiLAkJwQ
— CJsHubby (@Chase126David) September 27, 2025
But here's an additional kicker: Roberts claimed military service in his self-published memoir.
More on Roberts’s military service in a self-published book he wrote. He says he graduated from officer candidate school when he was 22 and then worked at security detail for Queen Elizabeth. Her visit was in 1994. (It was her first visit in 28 years, not 50 as he says.) If true,… pic.twitter.com/C2ippIfkEt
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) September 27, 2025
Roberts is also a registered voter in the state of Maryland, despite never having had Maryland residency. When Roberts registered to vote in 2017, he resided in St. Louis. Wonder who he voted for between 2017 and 2024?
Roberts is currently registered to vote in Maryland. When he registered in 2017, he reportedly had been working in St. Louis for years. There’s no indication from his resumes that he’s lived in Baltimore since he registered to vote there.
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) September 29, 2025
h/t @beautyinnis pic.twitter.com/TUw7WqJ8nJ
One of the recent accolades Roberts received was being inducted into the Coppin State University Athletic Hall of Fame. The ceremony was held in February 2025. In April 2025, the request to appeal his detainer was denied. In September 2025, he was finally apprehended. Somewhere along the long chain of powers and authorities who turned a blind eye to Roberts' wholly fraudulent existence, a link was broken, and he was finally apprehended and revealed for what he is.
Here is a pivotal question: how many Ian Roberts are out there, doing jobs that Americans want to do, and are being protected and pushed forward in support of the left's agenda? This is becoming a high-profile case for both sides of the table, so take note of what's floating in the air, and watch closely to see who gets caught in this very sizeable web of deception.
Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.
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