In one of the most bizarre stories of the year, but an unsurprising one given the principals involved, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested the superintendent of the Des Moines, Iowa, public school system.
ICE announced the arrest of Ian Roberts on Saturday. The allegation: He is a gun-toting illegal alien.
Particularly embarrassed by the arrest is the headmistress of the Des Moines School Board, Jackie Norris, far-left Democratic candidate for Senate and former chief of staff for former first lady Michelle Obama.
GOP legislators have told the school system to preserve any and all documents that will shed light on his case, or that of any other employee, past or present, who is an illegal alien.
The Arrest
ICE’s recounting of Roberts’ criminal career invites the observation that someone in Des Moines was asleep at the switch when the city hired him.
He is “a criminal illegal alien from Guyana in possession of a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash and a fixed blade hunting knife,” the Department of Homeland Security reported, and he had “a final order of removal and no work authorization.”
That means he should have been deported.
“During a targeted enforcement operation on Sept. 26, 2025, officers approached Roberts in his vehicle … but he sped away,” DHS continued:
Officers later discovered his vehicle abandoned near a wooded area. State Patrol assisted in locating the subject and he was taken into ICE custody.
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.
The investigation into how Roberts acquired the handgun is being turned over to the ATF. It is a violation of federal law for those in the U.S. without legal status to possess a firearm and ammunition.
DHS helpfully included a photo of the semiautomatic pistol found in Roberts’ car, and a not-so-becoming photo of Roberts, dated February 2020, when he wasn’t affecting the visage of school superintendent.
Norris, who expects voters to send her to the U.S. Senate, fobbed off blame for hiring Roberts to a consulting firm.
“As part of their work for [Des Moines Public Schools, DMPS], JG Consulting’s contract included their obligation to disclose to the District all known information of a positive or negative nature regarding candidates for the superintendent position,” Norris explained:
That included having … comprehensive criminal, credit, and background checks conducted by a third-party. In this case, the search firm used a company called Baker-Eubanks to conduct the background check, which found nothing related to citizenship or immigration matters related to Dr. Roberts.
What Baker-Eubanks will say about the affair remains to be seen. But whatever it or the other company says, Norris and her nearly-all-girl school board have some explaining to do.
Other Problems
So does Roberts. As the far-left Des Moines Register explained in its sob story, Roberts will have “an extremely difficult, if not impossible, chance of remaining in the U.S. — regardless of who is president, immigration advocacy organizations say.”
The newspaper revealed that Roberts lied on his application for the superintendent’s job when he claimed to be a citizen.
Norris “emphasized to the public on Sept. 27 that Roberts affirmed to the district he was a U.S. citizen who was eligible to work in the district when he was hired in 2023,” the newspaper reported.
As well, noted the Register:
The weapons charges against Roberts, leveled by the Department of Homeland Security, matter greatly because the federal Gun Control Act makes it unlawful for ‘illegal aliens’ to ship, transport, receive or possess firearms or ammunition.
The school board put Roberts on administrative leave. Despite his being ineligible to work, taxpayers will continue paying him while he awaits disposition of his criminal charges and/or a trip back home to Guyana.
As it is, the newspaper confessed, Roberts’ “massive challenge” will be appealing his case. A federal judge has already denied his request to reconsider his case. His deportation order from last year remains.
Said Sam Olson, chief of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in St. Paul, Minnesota:
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, [with] a final order of removal, and [with] a prior weapons charge is beyond comprehension and should alarm the parents of that school district.
GOP legislators in Iowa agree, the Register reported.
Charley Thomson, chieftain of the state’s House Government Oversight Committee, sent a letter to interim superintendent Matt Smith. The newspaper noted that DMPS was instructed
to “preserve all documents and evidence” related to the allegations against Roberts and more broadly, regarding general concerns about DMPS employees’ immigration status.
Posted to Facebook, the letter says the school district could possess documents and other material that might help determine
the truth, falsity or background of the Roberts allegations as well as the truth, falsity or background of any current or former employee of the Des Moines Public Schools who may be credibly accused of (a) being simultaneously a Des Moines Public School employee and a foreign national illegally present in the United States, or (b) being a Des Moines Public School employee and simultaneously subject to a final order of removal by an immigration judge.
Another GOP lawmaker, Taylor Collins, demanded that the school board resign.
