Ian Roberts speaks during a ribbon-cutting for an outdoor basketball court at a middle school in Des Moines in July. Photo / Cody Blissett, for The Washington Post
When the Des Moines School Board announced former Olympic athlete Ian Roberts as superintendent in 2023, he was praised as a “career educator” and a “proven champion for creating equitable opportunities for all students to thrive”.
More than two years later, his tenure at Iowa’s largest school district has come to an abrupt end.
In late September, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Roberts, surprising the education world by revealing him as an undocumented immigrant with a final order of deportation.
Investigators said they found him with “a loaded handgun, US$3000 in cash and a fixed blade hunting knife”.
“This is not what we anticipated when we welcomed Dr Ian Roberts into central Iowa and the Des Moines school district,” said Jackie Norris, the school board chair, who is running as a Democrat for the US Senate.
“It is a sad and troubling end for an individual who gave many people, especially our students, hope.”
Roberts’ arrest has left families in Des Moines struggling to reconcile the criminal described by the Trump Administration with the charismatic leader they saw interacting with their children.
In the days since, the community has also learned that Roberts had several previous weapons charges and misled people about his education credentials.
Those revelations have raised startling questions about the district’s vetting process.
They have also sparked a debate about how Roberts managed to pass as a US citizen and climb the ranks of the education sector with apparently little scrutiny of his immigration status.
The Des Moines School Board said Roberts had stated on his I-9 form that he was a US citizen and provided two types of documentation: a driver’s licence and a Social Security card.
That form is used by employers to verify work eligibility in the US, but several immigration lawyers noted that it wouldn’t necessarily flag concerns about citizenship status.
And some people who entered legally, like Roberts, could have obtained a Social Security card and licence before losing their status.
“Many immigrants in our country simply fall through the cracks,” said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute. “And they can be some of the most successful, integrated people.”
Roberts came to Des Moines after spending three years as superintendent at the Millcreek Township School District in Pennsylvania.
He started his career as a substitute teacher in New York and went on to hold leadership positions in Baltimore, St Louis and Washington public school districts.
In announcing his hiring, the Des Moines Public Schools said Roberts was a son of immigrants from Guyana who “spent most of his formative years in Brooklyn”.
He graduated from Coppin State University in Baltimore with a bachelor’s degree in 1998 and received a master’s degree from St John’s University in 2000. Roberts also competed in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, representing Guyana in the 800m race.
“Leadership is about meeting people where they are and helping them to become even better,” Roberts said after he was hired.
“And I am thrilled to have the opportunity to lead a strong organisation like Des Moines Public Schools.”
Roberts was known for racing students on the track and sporting three-piece suits. He independently published a book titled Radical Empathy in Leadership. Days before his arrest, the district touted improved performance scores, growth in attendance and a “reduction in chronic absenteeism” under his leadership.
Phil Roeder, a spokesperson for Des Moines Public Schools, said nobody at the district had been aware that Roberts was in the country illegally. The district had hired an outside firm to conduct its search and screening for a superintendent.
“This entire incident is pointing to how two things can be true,” Roeder said.
“Somebody can be a good leader, a good educator, even an inspiration to some people, and at the same time perhaps have issues in their personal life that means that work is just unable to be continued.”
Roberts’ immigration status wasn’t the only thing many in the district did not know.
The Department of Homeland Security said Roberts was charged with several counts of criminal possession of a weapon in New York in 2020.
The agency said that he allegedly had a loaded firearm outside his home or businesses and had an “ammunition feeding device”. A New York state court has sealed records of the case, making it difficult to determine whether the charges were upheld in court.
Roberts was also cited with possessing a loaded firearm in a vehicle in 2021 in Pennsylvania. Roeder, the Des Moines district spokesman, said that school officials had not been aware of the 2020 charge but that the second incident had come up during a background check.
Roberts said in a statement at the time that he had been hunting and was walking back to his car when he was stopped by a state game warden, according to the Erie Times-News.
He said he put his hunting rifle in the back seat and left the car door open so the warden did not feel unsafe as they spoke. He said he pleaded guilty to avoid missing out on his responsibilities at the Millcreek Township School District.
DHS said at the weekend that Roberts also has a 1996 charge for criminal possession of narcotics with the intent to sell, as well as several driving-related offences.
His resume also contained several false claims.
Des Moines Public Schools said on its website in 2024 that Roberts had completed a master’s degree at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Sarah McDonnell, deputy director of MIT media relations, said in an email that the university had no record of his enrolment.
Roberts also claimed he’d received a doctoral degree from Morgan State University in Baltimore. A university spokesperson confirmed that Roberts attended graduate school there and pursued a doctor of education in urban educational leadership, but did not receive a degree.
Federal and state court records reviewed by the Washington Post show that Roberts has had a messy personal life as well.
He has repeatedly been accused of dodging his legal responsibilities and abandoning his children. His ex-wife and two other women sued him for child support in Maryland.
One woman, a 42-year-old college-educated executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she met Roberts in Washington when he spotted her walking down the street and introduced himself.
He was charming and well-educated, and at the time was principal of Anacostia High School. He played soccer on weekends, and she visited him at work. Both were surprised when she became pregnant.
Though the relationship was already fizzling out, she said, they decided to raise the child together. But on the day she was scheduled for a C-section in 2014, he vanished. She filed lawsuits to obtain child support and said he moved frequently, making him difficult to find. She said he now pays a few hundred dollars a month.
“We have not seen or heard from him in 11 years,” she said of her and her daughter. “He definitely is a con man.”
As Roberts’ life story has come into focus, families in Des Moines have found themselves grappling with two questions: How did the district not know about his past when he was hired, and how did he manage to avoid closer inspection of his ability to live and work in America?
According to DHS, Roberts arrived in the US in 1994 on a visitor visa. He left at an unknown date and returned in 1999 on a student visa.
After that, he repeatedly applied for permanent residency but was rejected. A court filing indicates that he last filed for adjustment in 2018 after marrying a US citizen.
He was approved to work in the US in 2000 for one year. DHS states he did not get permission to work in the country again until 2018. US Citizenship and Immigration Services approved two requests that allowed him to be employed until the end of 2020.
Chishti, of the Migration Policy Institute, said Roberts could have applied for work authorisation while his application for a green card was pending.
Last year, Roberts was issued with a final order of removal. The order states that Roberts “failed to appear” at a hearing and provided “no exceptional circumstances” to explain his absence.
Alfredo Parrish, Roberts’ lawyer, described the case as “very complex” and said his staff has filed a motion to halt Roberts’ deportation and planned to try to reopen his immigration case. He declined to make Roberts available for an interview.
Parrish also declined to answer questions about his client’s record in the US but pointed reporters to a letter from Roberts’ previous lawyer, Jackeline Gonzalez, informing Roberts in March 2025 that his immigration case had been closed.
“I am pleased to report that your case has reached a successful resolution,” Gonzalez wrote.
Gonzalez told an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that the letter was intended to convey to Roberts that the case had been closed with her office, not that the case was “completed” in immigration court, according to a court filing.
She filed a motion to withdraw as Roberts’ lawyer after sending him a letter that said he owed nearly US$12,000 in legal bills, the court filing states. Gonzalez declined to comment further on the case.
As for Roberts’ ability to get through the hiring process, Eric Welsh, a partner at Reeves Immigration Law Group, noted that every state has its own rules regarding obtaining a driver’s licence, and that while Social Security cards now typically include an annotation if someone is not a US citizen, that was far less likely if someone received a card before September 11, 2001.
Visa holders with authorisation to work can receive a Social Security number.
“All the law requires for the employer is I-9 compliance, good faith that they’re not complicit in any wrongdoing,” Welsh said. “In this scenario, even if he is complying with the list of documents, if he is checking that box and he knows he’s not a US citizen, then he’s liable.”
The Des Moines School Board had hired JG Consulting, a firm based in Texas, to conduct its superintendent search.
In a statement, a lawyer for the firm said that Roberts had “provided the documents necessary” to show he was eligible to work in Des Moines and that his immigration status was “not discovered in any prior placements”. The company also said it used a “respected third-party company” to conduct a background check.
Des Moines Public Schools is now suing the firm and alleging negligence and breach of contract. Before the lawsuit, Norris, the school board chair, suggested that there was nothing the school district would have changed in how it approached Roberts’ hiring.
“In hindsight, I think there is nothing we would have done differently because we followed the process,” she told reporters last week. “And quite honestly this is the process that many employers use all across the country.”
Many Des Moines students have been organising to support Roberts. Dozens from East High School walked out last Tuesday afternoon local time, headed to Iowa’s state Capitol building and chanting: “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here”. As they gathered to hear their fellow students speak, some wore blue shirts that said: “Free Dr Roberts”.
Students took turns speaking, decrying Roberts’ arrest but also the Trump Administration’s broader immigration agenda. “They’re kidnapping people!” one student yelled from the crowd.
In interviews, parents expressed sadness for Roberts.
Jon Bailey, who has an 11-year-old and a 13-year-old in the Des Moines public school system, called the situation “somewhat confusing, troubling”.
“It’s hard to know who to trust these days, and the formal institutions that should give us information on what the accuracy of things are, because of their past statements the last few months, it’s hard to know if they’re accurate or not,” Bailey said. “There seems to be a lot more questions than answers.”
Amber Graeber, another parent, said Roberts recently walked with her kindergartener in a parade. She does not care about his immigration status, she said, but found the “untruths on the resume” disappointing.
“This has created trauma for kids, for the school board members,” she said. “This has sent a community into upheaval.”
Other parents had questions for the school board. Todd Kirke said Roberts seemed to care for children and appeared to be doing “a really good job”. But “you can’t overlook criminality,” added Kirke, who wondered why Roberts “started missing the steps in order to stay here legally”.
“You had somebody who seemed to really relish being here, and taking care of kids and serving in the education sector,” Kirke said.
But “we don’t know what everybody does after the lights are off”.
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