Sep. 26, 2025:
Illegal Alien With Gun Charges and a Deportation Order Was Des Moines Public School Superintendent Until ICE Found Him.
Federal immigration agents took Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Ian Andre Roberts into custody on September 26, 2025, after a pursuit that ended with him hiding in nearby brush. Authorities discovered a loaded Glock 19 handgun, a fixed-blade hunting knife, and $3,000 in cash inside the vehicle he abandoned—a car provided by the school district.
Roberts, a native of Guyana who entered the United States on a student visa in 1999, had overstayed his legal welcome, with his employment authorization expiring in 2020 and a deportation order issued in absentia in May 2024. A subsequent motion to reopen his case was denied by an immigration judge in Dallas in April 2025.
Roberts’ background includes a prior weapons possession charge from February 2020, stemming from an arrest by Port Authority police in New York. Despite this history, he rose through the ranks in education, working in districts across New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and St. Louis before landing the top job in Iowa’s largest school system in July 2023. His hiring followed a nationwide search, where district officials praised his alignment with community values drawn from input by staff, parents, students, and residents.
Sam Olson, director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations in the St. Paul Field Office, described the circumstances surrounding the arrest in stark terms: “This suspect was arrested in possession of a loaded weapon in a vehicle provided by Des Moines Public Schools after fleeing federal law enforcement. 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, a final order of removal, and a prior weapons charge is beyond comprehension and should alarm the parents of that school district.”
How did someone here illegally with no right to work and a weapons-related arrest get a job overseeing more than 30,000 students? Such oversights erode trust in public institutions, especially when taxpayer funds support positions of authority. Parents and community members now face the reality that routine safeguards were circumvented by DEI practices, leaving schools vulnerable to risks that extend beyond administrative duties.
Illegal Alien With Gun Charges and a Deportation Order Was Des Moines Public School Superintendent Until ICE Found Him.
Federal immigration agents took Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Ian Andre Roberts into custody on September 26, 2025, after a pursuit that ended with him hiding in nearby brush. Authorities discovered a loaded Glock 19 handgun, a fixed-blade hunting knife, and $3,000 in cash inside the vehicle he abandoned—a car provided by the school district.
Roberts, a native of Guyana who entered the United States on a student visa in 1999, had overstayed his legal welcome, with his employment authorization expiring in 2020 and a deportation order issued in absentia in May 2024. A subsequent motion to reopen his case was denied by an immigration judge in Dallas in April 2025.
Roberts’ background includes a prior weapons possession charge from February 2020, stemming from an arrest by Port Authority police in New York. Despite this history, he rose through the ranks in education, working in districts across New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and St. Louis before landing the top job in Iowa’s largest school system in July 2023. His hiring followed a nationwide search, where district officials praised his alignment with community values drawn from input by staff, parents, students, and residents.
Sam Olson, director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations in the St. Paul Field Office, described the circumstances surrounding the arrest in stark terms: “This suspect was arrested in possession of a loaded weapon in a vehicle provided by Des Moines Public Schools after fleeing federal law enforcement. 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, a final order of removal, and a prior weapons charge is beyond comprehension and should alarm the parents of that school district.”
How did someone here illegally with no right to work and a weapons-related arrest get a job overseeing more than 30,000 students? Such oversights erode trust in public institutions, especially when taxpayer funds support positions of authority. Parents and community members now face the reality that routine safeguards were circumvented by DEI practices, leaving schools vulnerable to risks that extend beyond administrative duties.
