Without spending a dime and expending less than half an hour of the personnel department’s time, the Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS) system could have learned that its former superintendent, Ian Roberts, was an illegal alien with an extensive criminal history. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley (R) said in a press release, “The E-Verify program cannot find any record that DMPS has ever been enrolled in E-Verify…” Grassley added that the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that if an E-Verify case had been created using an expired Employment Authorization Document—apparently Roberts’ situation—it would have resulted in a non-confirmation. Roberts was not authorized to work in the U.S.
Instead of relying on the mostly infallible E-Verify system, DMPS irresponsibly forged ahead, spending nearly $100,000 to hire the Texas-based placement firm JG Consulting to vet Roberts and paying the new superintendent $300,000 annually. The district is now spending substantial funds on lawyers to sue JG and Roberts— both long shots to succeed in court.
With every passing day, the scandal surrounding DMPS’s hiring of Guyanese con man Roberts as its superintendent grows more incredible. In a desperate but belated effort to save face, DMPS filed a lawsuit for breach of contract and negligence against JG Consulting, the firm that conducted the search culminating in Roberts’ employment. Roberts has just been released from federal custody as he awaits deportation.
In a self-serving statement that perpetuates the lie that Roberts earned a Ph.D., Jackie Norris, DMPS board chair, insisted that “the search firm failed in its duty to properly vet the candidates, and Dr. Roberts should have never been presented as a potential superintendent.” Roberts had repeatedly claimed that he had obtained a Ph.D. from Morgan State University. The school confirmed that although Roberts was enrolled in university classes from November 2003 to November 2007, he never received a degree of any kind.
As more information trickles out, Iowans have learned that DMPS knew Roberts did not have a doctorate degree from Morgan State but proceeded, nevertheless. DMPS was engaged in an illegal DEI hiring program that likely gave preference to Roberts because he is a Black African whom they incorrectly thought was a legal immigrant. DMPS paid $83,901 to the nonprofit New Leaders to help design an illegal race-based hiring program. At one time, Roberts appeared on the New Leaders website as an alumnus of their program. New Leaders and its internal equity policies could be in violation of Iowa’s new diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ban, which took effect statewide in July 2025.
Before DMPS hired Roberts, Millcreek Township School District (MTSD) published an open letter to community members in which it admitted the district was “profoundly misled” during the hiring process when it named Roberts the district’s superintendent. Specifically, MTSD claims that the search agency it used to vet Roberts had not made it aware of the Guyanese national’s previous criminal charges, which it calls an “egregious breach of trust that was perpetrated by Roberts.”
Roberts’ Immigration and Criminal History
According to a Department of Homeland Security press release, Roberts entered New York City in 1994 on a B-2 non-immigrant tourist visa. Two years later, in 1996, authorities charged Roberts with criminal possession of narcotics with intent to sell, criminal possession of narcotics, criminal possession of a forgery instrument, and possession of a forged instrument. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied Roberts’ green card applications on four separate occasions.
Timeline of subsequent entries:
March 8, 1999: Roberts entered the U.S. through California’s San Francisco International Airport as an F-1 student visa holder. The visa was set to expire March 7, 2004. He departed the U.S. on an unknown date.
June 28, 1999: Roberts reentered the U.S. through San Francisco on the same F-1 student visa. Again, he departed the U.S. on an unknown date.
August 30, 1999: He again reentered the U.S. at JFK International Airport on the same student visa.
February 9, 2000: Roberts filed an application for employment authorization, which U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved on April 5, 2000, with an expiration date of April 1, 2001.
Conclusion
Roberts, a hardened criminal with gun and drug charges against him, should never have been allowed around children. The board has disgraced itself and lost, for years to come, any credibility in the community. The first step toward its redemption is to admit the foolishness of its ways and the taxpayer dollars squandered. Each member should publicly resign. Complete forgiveness lies in the distant future. Blame also rests with Democrat- and Republican-controlled Congresses for refusing to mandate E-Verify, a program that has existed in different forms since 1997 and would have instantly identified Roberts as not employment authorized.
Visit us on Social Media:
USTW
IfSPP
