The Department of Homeland Security has revealed new details about Ian Roberts, a criminal illegal immigrant from Guyana who lied his way into a job as school district superintendent in Des Moines, Iowa, and was registered to vote in Maryland.
Roberts is now confirmed to have entered the United States in 1994, four years earlier than was previously known. He was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in late September and now faces deportation proceedings.
His nearly three decades in the U.S., including roughly 25 years illegally residing in the country, underscore the Trump administration’s push to enforce immigration laws and confirm concerns that illegal immigrants are voting and working, according to the DHS.
“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 issued Friday afternoon.
“When ICE officers arrested this Superintendent, he was in possession of an illegal handgun, a hunting knife, and nearly $3,000 in cash,” McLaughlin said. “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.”
A new timeline released by the Trump administration shows that Roberts obtained two visas and was denied four green card applications to become a lawful permanent resident. He has been illegally residing in the U.S. for roughly 25 years as he snagged job after job in public school systems across the country.
The DHS disclosed Wednesday afternoon that Roberts was first admitted at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on June 1, 1994, on a B-2 visa as a visitor for pleasure. He departed on an unknown date but returned sometime in 1996.
On July 3, 1996, he was charged with criminal possession of narcotics with intent to sell, criminal possession of narcotics, criminal possession of a forged instrument, and possession of a forged instrument in New York.
In 1998, he attended Coppin State University in Baltimore, where he earned a bachelor’s degree. Despite being in Baltimore at the time, he was charged on Nov. 13, 1998, for the third-degree unauthorized use of a vehicle in New York. It is not clear why he was in New York. The charge was dismissed the following July.
He left the country at some point before returning to the U.S. at San Francisco International Airport on an F-1 student visa in March 1999. That year, he attended St. John’s University in New York and received a master’s degree in general education.
Roberts departed the U.S. shortly after and returned on June 28, 1999, through San Francisco. He then departed the country again and returned to the U.S. on Aug. 30, 1999, at JFK.
In February 2000, Roberts applied for employment authorization with the DHS agency Citizenship and Immigration Services. The application was approved in April, and the work document was valid through March 2001.
In September 2000, Roberts again departed the U.S. and returned to JFK at the end of the month on his student visa.
Roberts failed to leave the country when he completed school, which automatically made him an illegal immigrant because he overstayed his visa.
That year, he was granted a Maryland driver’s license, which was eventually renewed through 2024. He also registered to vote in Maryland in 2012 and stated “under penalty of perjury” that he was a U.S. citizen.
In 2001, he was hired to teach in the Baltimore Public Schools system. That same year, Roberts filed an application for a green card with USCIS. The application was rejected in 2003.
The following year, Roberts enrolled in Morgan State University’s urban education leadership doctoral program through 2007, but he never completed his degree.
In 2012, Roberts was convicted of reckless driving, unsafe operation, and speeding in Maryland.
Roberts worked in public schools in Washington; St. Louis; and Oakland, California, before becoming superintendent of Millcreek Township School District in Erie, Pennsylvania. It remains unclear how he obtained the jobs without work documents or legal immigration status.
Roberts tried again to apply for a green card in 2018 after being illegally present in the U.S. for 17 years. His application was rejected a second time several months later. He applied for a third time to obtain a green card in June 2018. Weeks later, USCIS denied the third application.
However, the same agency awarded him documents to legally work in the U.S. in July 2018, even though he had no legal basis to be in the country. The documents were good through Dec. 18, 2019.
Roberts appealed in November 2019 for another work document and was approved for a second permit that expired on Dec. 18, 2020. Roberts also disclosed his address with USCIS as part of the work permit process.
Fresh off his work document victory, Roberts applied a fourth time for a green card and was denied in January 2020.
Weeks later, Roberts was charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and fourth-degree weapon charges. He was convicted in January 2022 for unlawful possession of a loaded firearm.
Days before he was hired in Des Moines, the Millcreek Township School District paid out a $250,000 settlement related to Roberts. Two other settlements were paid out by the district in relation to Roberts’s behavior.
Roberts was hired by Des Moines Public Schools in 2023 and provided a Social Security card, though the validity of the document has not been confirmed by the DHS. He earned $286,000 in the role.
As previously reported by the Washington Examiner, Roberts falsely claimed to have earned a doctorate from Morgan State and that he was named the District of Columbia’s Principal of the Year.
Roberts also told Des Moines Public Schools that he “completed education programs” at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, and had a master’s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. Harvard, Georgetown, and MIT have no record of Roberts attending, let alone any indication that he completed education programs there.
HOW AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT LIED HIS WAY TO AN IOWA SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT JOB
His illegal immigrant status eventually caught the attention of the federal government. In May 2024, an immigration judge in Dallas ordered Roberts to be deported. Roberts was not present at his court hearing that day. In April this year, an immigration judge denied Roberts’s request that his case be reopened.
Roberts was arrested on Sept. 26 by Iowa State Patrol and ICE officers. He initially identified himself to the officers who pulled him over, then sped off. He abandoned the vehicle and ran into a brushy area where police found him. Roberts had a Glock 9-millimeter pistol and a fixed-blade hunting knife in his possession when police located him.
Kaelan Deese contributed to this report.
