Des Moines’ recently resigned school superintendent had a lengthy record of criminal charges and convictions in multiple states, federal officials say.
Department of Homeland Security officials provided the list and a timeline of Ian Andre Roberts’ immigration history Friday, Oct. 3, in response to requests from the Des Moines Register and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. They include a previously unreported drug trafficking charge.
Roberts resigned from Des Moines Public Schools on Tuesday, days after his arrest by federal immigration authorities acting on a 2024 deportation order. He now faces additional federal charges for illegal firearm possession after officers found loaded guns in his vehicle and home after his arrest.
Department of Homeland Security officials in prior statements had referenced previously unreported criminal allegations against Roberts. In its new statement Friday, the department disclosed additional details, describing a history of criminal allegations for Roberts dating back nearly 30 years.
In addition to the new federal charge, according to the DHS, Roberts has faced:
The statement does not describe the outcomes of all of the cases, notably the drug possession and forgery charges. The Register had previously reported that a 2020 gun case stemming from an arrest by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had been sealed by a New York state court.
The 2022 Pennsylvania charge, which was known at the time Roberts was hired in Des Moines, resulted in a $100 fine.
“Ian Andre Roberts, a criminal illegal alien with multiple weapons charges and a drug trafficking charge, should have never been able to work around children,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement accompanying the list. “… This criminal illegal alien is now in U.S. Marshals custody and facing charges for being an illegal alien in possession of a firearms. Under Secretary Noem, ICE will continue to arrest the worst of the worst and put the safety of America’s children first.”
Roberts’ attorney, Alfredo Parrish, told the Register in response to the DHS statement that most of the cases either did not appear to have resulted in convictions or were already known, and suggested the department was trying to “turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.”
“It seems to me by releasing this additional information, where it’s been out there the whole time, they’re trying to put it into one document to make Dr. Roberts look dangerous,” he said. “It would serve no purpose, because at the end of the day, it’s just empty claims.”
Des Moines school district officials, though, have said they were not aware of the prior allegations against Roberts, whether they resulted in convictions or not, when they hired him. They also have raised concerns about a number of apparent falsehoods in Roberts’ resume and background, leading the district on Friday to file suit against the search firm that proposed Roberts as a candidate for the superintendent post.
“Ian Roberts should have never been presented as a finalist,” DMPS board chair Jackie Norris said Friday. “If we knew what we knew now, he would have never been hired.”
Further details of Roberts’ immigration record
The DHS on Friday also provided a more detailed timeline for Roberts’ history with immigration authorities. According to the statement, Roberts, a native of Guyana, first entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in 1994, then departed the country and returned at some unknown point prior to his 1996 drug arrest, then departed again.
In 1999, the DHS says, Roberts returned to the U.S. on a student visa. In May 2001, he filed the first of four green card applications for permanent residency, with two more filed in 2018 and another in 2020. All were denied.
Roberts also has intermittently held work authorization, according to the DHS, including from 2000 to 2001 and from 2018 to 2020.
In October 2020, according to the DHS, Roberts received a notice to appear before an immigration judge. He failed to do so and was ultimately ordered deported in absentia in May 2024. In April 2025, an immigration judge denied Roberts’ request to reopen his case.
(This story was edited to correct dates.)
Staff writer Philip Joens contributed to this article.
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: DHS releases list of charges, convictions for ex-Des Moines Superintendent Ian Roberts
Reporting by William Morris and Philip Joens, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
