(The Center Square) – The former superintendent of the largest school district in Iowa has pleaded guilty to federal charges after he was arrested by law enforcement last September.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested former Des Moines Public School Superintendent Ian Andre Roberts last September after a manhunt ensued. A citizen of Guyana, Roberts had a decades-long criminal record and had been living in the U.S. illegally with no work authorization, The Center Square reported. A federal immigration judge also ordered his removal from the U.S. in 2024.
When ICE ERO-Des Moines officers approached him to arrest him, he sped away in his taxpayer-funded DMPS vehicle to evade arrest. Officers later found the vehicle abandoned near a wooded area. Iowa State Patrol assisted with locating and arresting him. When he was arrested, he was in possession of a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash and a fixed blade hunting knife, ICE said.
Four months later, an ICE-Homeland Security Investigations-led investigation resulted in Roberts pleading guilty on Jan. 22, ICE announced on Tuesday. “Roberts falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen on employment paperwork related to his position at Des Moines Public Schools in June 2023 — he has never been a U.S. citizen. When ICE arrested him on Sept. 26, 2025, he knowingly carried a loaded Glock pistol in his vehicle even though he was unlawfully present in the country. He also had three more firearms at his home including a loaded rifle, a loaded pistol and a shotgun. It is a federal crime for illegal aliens to possess firearms,” ICE said in a statement.
Last October, he was charged with being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm.
The guilty plea ends a saga beginning with DMPS initially claiming it “did not have any knowledge” of his immigration status or final removal order from a federal immigration judge. Next, the district sued the Texas-based firm it used to hire him, The Center Square reported.
The Department of Justice also launched an investigation into DMPS’s “diversity, equity and inclusion” policy that states it hires employees based on race, The Center Square reported.
The fallout resulted in the school board chair ending her U.S. Senate campaign and additional questions about how the district was using taxpayer money.
The Des Moines Public School System hired Roberts despite an extensive criminal history, which includes an initial charge dating to July 1996 of “criminal possession of narcotics with intent to sell, criminal possession of narcotics, criminal possession of a forgery instrument and possession of a forged instrument” in New York, The Center Square reported. In 1998, Roberts was charged with third-degree unauthorized use of a vehicle in New York; in November 2012, he was convicted for reckless driving, unsafe operation and speeding in Maryland; in February 2020, he was charged with “second-degree criminal possession of a weapon (having a loaded firearm outside his home or business); third-degree criminal possession of a weapon (an ammunition feeding device); and fourth-degree weapon charges,” ICE said.
In January 2022, he was convicted of unlawful possession of a loaded firearm in Pennsylvania.
His immigration history includes two visas and four applications for a green card, which were all denied. He also left and reentered the country multiple times, ICE said.
Roberts first entered the U.S. on a B-2 nonimmigrant visa in June 1994 at JFK International Airport in New York; in March 1999, he reentered through San Francisco International Airport on an F-1 student visa. He later departed and reentered the U.S. multiple times through San Francisco and JFK on the same visa, ICE said.
His first employment authorization application approval expired in April 2001; others expired in December 2019 and December 2020, which were not renewed. Since then, Roberts had been living in the U.S. illegally and working in the U.S. without federal authorization, according to his immigration record, ICE said.
It took 28 years from Roberts’ first felony charge to when a judge ordered his removal from the U.S. This was done in absentia because he didn’t show up to his hearing. Roberts’ motion to reopen his case was denied, according to his immigration record.
It would take another nearly 18 months for ICE to arrest him in Des Moines when he fled the scene and another five months to secure a guilty plea.
He remains in federal custody pending sentencing and subsequent removal from the U.S.
