The scandal rocking Des Moines, Iowa, Public Schools has taken an even darker turn after revelations that Superintendent Dr. Ian Andre Roberts, an illegal alien fugitive from Guyana with a deportation order, was placed on paid leave following his dramatic arrest by ICE agents.
ICE agents on Friday arrested Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Ian Andre Roberts, an illegal alien fugitive from Guyana who had been living under a deportation order since May 2024.
According to Fox News reporter Bill Melugin, Roberts fled from ICE agents in his car once they identified themselves, speeding away before abandoning the vehicle and attempting to escape on foot. He was ultimately found hiding in shrubbery with the assistance of an Iowa State Police K9.
Inside his vehicle, agents recovered a loaded Glock 19 handgun, a fixed-blade hunting knife, and $3,000 in cash. Roberts reportedly has a prior weapons arrest dating back to 2020.
Despite this, Roberts was hired as Superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools in July 2023, after a national search process involving an outside firm.
He was granted a superintendent license by the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners in the same year, with an FBI criminal background check that somehow failed to flag his immigration issues.
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In response, Des Moines Public Schools announced that Roberts had been placed on paid leave while the district investigates the situation.
Board Chair Jackie Norris issued a lengthy statement attempting to defend the district’s hiring process. She insisted Roberts had passed all required checks and claimed the district had no knowledge of his immigration status or deportation order.
Norris said Roberts “affirmed he was a U.S. citizen” on employment paperwork and emphasized that the Iowa Department of Education had issued his superintendent license without incident.
She placed blame on the outside firm, JG Consulting, and the third-party company it contracted, which she said failed to uncover any red flags.
Norris scolded the community to “cool down the rhetoric”:
Board Chair Jackie Norris:
“No denying the simple fact: yesterday was a jarring day for many people—not only at Des Moines Public Schools, but throughout this community and country.In 2023, our students, staff, and families warmly welcomed Dr. Roberts into our community, and he has served as an enthusiastic voice in support of our students’ academic success and the need to support public education. So yesterday came as a shock to all of us.
I want to be clear today: we still do not have all of the facts. According to ICE, in May 2024 an immigration judge issued a final removal order for Dr. Roberts. We were not made aware of that fact, and that’s very concerning.
I want to be clear: no one here was aware of any citizenship or immigration issues that Dr. Roberts may have been facing. The accusations ICE has made against Dr. Roberts are very serious, and we are taking them very seriously.
Dr. Roberts has retained the Parish-Credanier law firm. They have already provided a statement on their role, and they will likely offer future statements.
As we shared yesterday afternoon, employers—including DMPS—are 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. Everything the district has on file indicates that Dr. Roberts affirmed he was a citizen who was eligible to work in the school district.
The Iowa Department of Education issued a license in 2023 to the superintendent. The agency says an FBI criminal background check did not raise issues, and Roberts said he was a U.S. citizen on the application.
Later on, we will address the specific steps the board took when conducting the superintendent search and hiring Dr. Roberts in 2023.
Two things can be true: we must support our interim superintendent and staff as they lead 35,000 students and staff on Monday, because our collective role is to educate and support our students and their families.
We must also continue to pursue the facts in this case and understand our school community is still processing this very significant issue.
I also want to be clear about one fact that cannot be ignored: of course, the school district ensured that a background check was conducted before hiring Dr. Roberts. That is done for every person who is hired by the district, and periodic reviews are conducted on a regular basis for all current employees.
On that point, I want to share the steps in the process that led to the hiring of Dr. Roberts.
In December 2022, Des Moines Public Schools approved a contract with JG Consulting as the district’s search firm to bring qualified superintendent candidates for our consideration.
Between January and the end of March 2023, the board worked with the search firm on a variety of issues related to the qualifications and characteristics of candidates for the position, as the search firm recruited potential candidates for consideration.
Between April 11 and 13, and then on May 16, the school board conducted interviews with candidates. On May 16, the school board approved our first contract with Dr. Roberts, who began his role as superintendent on July 1, 2023.
As part of their work for DMPS, JG Consulting’s contract included their obligation to disclose to the district all known information—positive or negative—regarding candidates for the superintendent position. That included having a comprehensive criminal, credit, and background check conducted by a third party.
In this case, the search firm used a company called Baker U. Banks to conduct the background check, which found nothing related to citizenship or immigration matters concerning Dr. Roberts.
After his selection, Dr. Roberts applied for his superintendent license with the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners. The State of Iowa issued a superintendent license to Dr. Roberts on July 11, 2023.
This all came after a career of more than 20 years that Dr. Roberts spent as an educator and school leader in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and New York.
In addition, DMPS is cooperating with requests for information from state authorities and will continue to do so.
Finally, we all need to cool down the rhetoric. We should promote true discourse and facts, not spread misinformation meant to divide us. Our elected officials need to behave like role models for our children. Enough with the name-calling and misinformation that is meant to divide us.
We are talking about human beings. Our kids are watching. They are online 24/7 on social media, on phones, and what they see right now is likely very difficult for them to process.
While we work to address this personnel issue, we must continue to lift up our district, our students, and staff, and push back against hateful rhetoric directed at us.”
WATCH:
BREAKING
Des Moines Public Schools just placed Superintendent Ian Roberts on paid leave. Board Chair Jackie Norris made a statement providing some information about how Roberts was hired. She says that he claimed to be a citizen and that the outside firm hired to do a… pic.twitter.com/c6PIfOh8aQ
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) September 27, 2025
