I recently detailed the bizarre history of “Dr.” Ian Roberts, a Guyanese national under a final order of removal who nonetheless was serving (at a rate of nearly $287k per year) as the Des Moines (Iowa) public school superintendent before he was arrested by ICE on September 26. ICE released new information about the Roberts case, and now his presence and activities make even less sense. To quote a New York Times headline, “The Superintendent’s Bio Seemed Too Good to Be True. It Was.”
A Quick Recap and a Brief Update
When I first pieced together Roberts’ history in the United States on September 30, I admitted he had “a pretty impressive resume” but warned that “some aspects of it to come under scrutiny in coming days”.
Boy, was I right.
At that time, I noted Roberts graduated from Coppin State University (CSU) in Baltimore in 1998, where he was a track star, with a degree (ironically enough) in criminology. Most of the rest of what I could then glean from his past was based on glowing claims on the CSU website.
After leaving CSU, he reentered the United States thereafter on an F-1, nonimmigrant student visa to attend St. John’s University in New York, where he purportedly earned a master’s degree.
While at St. John’s, he qualified for the Olympics, representing Guyana in the Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, in 2000.
Thereafter, he purportedly, “earned a second master’s degree at Georgetown University”, and “completed education programs” not only at CSU and St. John’s, but also at “Morgan State [University, in Baltimore], Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business and an MBA at” the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Sloan School of Management.
While he apparently did receive a “master of science education/general and special education (grades 7-12)” from St. John’s, whether any of the rest of that is true is unclear.
Iowa Public Radio reported on October 4 that while he attended Morgan State from the fall of 2002 to the spring of 2007 in pursuit of a doctorate in “urban educational leadership ... he did not achieve a degree nor a certificate from Morgan State”.
That fact was apparently revealed to the Des Moines School Board during a background check before he was hired in 2023, when his “doctoral” claim was changed “to note ABD, or ‘all but dissertation,’ which is required to earn such a degree”.
MIT told USA Today that the prestigious university “does not have records of Roberts attending”, while neither Harvard or Georgetown would confirm that he had matriculated or completed programs there.
That outlet also reports, “Roberts may have a doctoral degree from Trident International University, an online, for-profit college. According to a paper available online, Roberts presented his thesis to Trident faculty in 2021.”
Reportedly, however, his attorney claims “that Roberts does have a doctoral degree from Trident”, blaming “social media” in part for the discrepancies.
According to Iowa Public Radio, Roberts did serve as a teacher in the Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) between August 2001 and June 2004, and as a “teacher, resident principal and principal” for BCPS from June 2005 until June 2010.
Thereafter, he worked for Anacostia High School in Washington, D.C., at least between 2010 and 2011, as “Ian Roberts” is listed as the principal at that school on its website during that period.
From 2015 to 2018, Roberts worked for the St. Louis (Mo.) public schools as a “network superintendent”, and purportedly also worked from June 2018 to January 2020 as “chief schools officer” for Aspire Schools in Oakland, Calif.
Aspire, however, refused to “release personal records or information about current or former employees” to Iowa Public Radio “without a signed release or a subpoena request”.
What is clear (and frequently reported) is that Roberts served as the superintendent of the Millcreek Township (Pa.) schools, near Erie, for three years, from August 2020 to June 2023, where he started with a “base salary” of $180,000.
“During that time”, according to the New York Post, “the school district was inundated by lawsuits — and forced to pay out over $400,000 in sex discrimination settlements — claiming Roberts promoted less qualified women over more deserving men”.
And it was while he was serving at Millcreek Township that he received a ticket for having a loaded gun in his vehicle while on state gamelands, a summary offense under 34 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. § 2503(a).
He pled guilty to that offense in January 2022 and paid a $100 fine and court costs.
Assuming they were known, that conviction and the lawsuits reported by the Post did not stop the Des Moines Public School system from hiring Roberts to be its chief in 2023, at a base salary of $286,716, according to the Des Moines Register.
He was serving in that capacity when ICE conducted what it termed “a targeted enforcement operation on Sept. 26, 2025”, with officers approaching Roberts in his vehicle in Des Moines.
Roberts “sped away”, and officers later discovered his car “abandoned near a wooded area. State Patrol assisted in locating the subject and he was taken into ICE custody.”
“DHS Releases New Information on Extensive Criminal History of Illegal Alien Ian Roberts”
Thereafter, multiple media outlets did what various school districts apparently failed to do, that is examine the tortuous academic and work history of “Dr. Roberts”.
That effort was significantly aided on October 3, when the Department of Homeland Security published a press release headlined “DHS Releases New Information on Extensive Criminal History of Illegal Alien Ian Roberts who was Working as Iowa School Superintendent”.
According to the department, Roberts first entered the United States on a B-2, nonimmigrant tourist, visa in June 1994 through JFK airport in New York, and just over two years later was arrested in the Empire State for “criminal possession of narcotics with intent to sell, criminal possession of narcotics, criminal possession of a forgery instrument and possession of a forged instrument”.
There’s no disposition for those charges, but a November 1998 charge “for third-degree unauthorized use of a vehicle in Queens, New York” was dismissed in July 1999.
Neither of those arrests, however, prevented Roberts from receiving an F-1 visa, which he used to enter through San Francisco International Airport in March and June 1999.
He also used that F-1 to reenter through JFK in August 1999, departing through that same airport on September 4, 2000, apparently to attend the 2000 Olympics in Sydney (which ran from September 14 to October 1, 2000).
Roberts must have skipped the closing ceremonies, though, as he returned on his F-1 visa on September 30, 2000.
While present in F-1 visa status in February 2000, he applied for employment authorization, which USCIS approved two months later. That employment authorization was good until April 1, 2001.
In May 2001, he applied with USCIS for lawful permanent residence (a “green card”), though DHS didn’t disclose the basis of that application.
In any event, that green card application was denied according to DHS in January 2003.
That was just the first green card application Roberts submitted, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
In November 2012, Roberts was convicted in Maryland for “reckless driving, unsafe operation and speeding”. That conviction likely ended with a fine.
The New York Times reported that Roberts “married an American citizen in Florida” in 2017, and she likely filed the immediate-relative visa petition that formed the basis for the good doctor’s second green-card application on May 15, 2018, which USCIS denied 15 days later.
Undeterred, Roberts filed a third application for lawful permanent residence on June 4, 2018, which USCIS rejected just over two weeks later.
The next month, however, Roberts again asked USCIS for employment authorization, which USCIS granted on December 18, 2019, and which allowed him to work in the United States for one year.
But according to DHS, Roberts faced additional criminal charges on February 3, 2020, for “second-degree criminal possession of a weapon (having a loaded firearm outside his home or business)” and “third-degree criminal possession of a weapon (an ammunition feeding device)”, as well as a fourth-degree weapon violation, all in an unspecified jurisdiction.
DHS described the second-degree weapon violation as “inchoate”, meaning that the offense in question was not fully completed and therefore couldn’t be proven, and there is no disposition for the other charges.
In October 2020, ICE issued a notice to appear (NTA) to Roberts, charging him with removability from the United States on unspecified grounds.
Despite that fact, when Roberts was arrested for the weapons violation on Pennsylvania state game lands described above, resulting in the January 2022 conviction above, he was not taken into ICE custody.
For reasons that are unclear, however, the October 2020 NTA apparently required Roberts to appear before an immigration judge in Dallas, Texas, a place there’s no evidence he ever lived.
He failed to appear, however, resulting in a May 22, 2024, in absentia removal order from the Dallas immigration court.
Eleven months later, in April 2025, Roberts asked the Dallas immigration judge to reopen his removal proceedings. That request was apparently denied, given his September 26 ICE arrest, during which he was found to be in possession of “a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash and a fixed blade hunting knife”.
It’s a federal crime for aliens under final removal orders to possess firearms, so expect more charges to be forthcoming.
That would complicate Roberts’ latest efforts to reopen his removal order, which AP reported on September 30 he was attempting to do, but then so would his seemingly successful effort to register to vote in Maryland, which AP also discussed but which was not confirmed by the state.
“The Superintendent’s Bio Seemed Too Good to Be True. It Was.”
An October 5 New York Times article on Roberts’ immigration and employment history is headlined “The Superintendent’s Bio Seemed Too Good to Be True. It Was,” and that’s likely an understatement.
A professional recruiting firm assisted Millcreek Township when it ultimately hired Roberts in 2020, and that locality is considering legal action against the business.
Des Moines Public Schools has already filed suit against the recruiter that led them to Roberts, alleging “breach of contract and negligence”.
“Bleeding Heartland”, which describes itself as “An independent website about Iowa politics”, compares “Dr.” Ian Roberts to “Professor” Harold Hill, the protagonist in Meredith Willson’s classic 1957 musical, “The Music Man”.
The book for that musical tells the story of a huckster who fleeces small-town rubes with promises of musical genius for their kids before finding love and reforming, and much like Act 3 of the Roberts’ drama, “The Music Man” is set in the Hawkeye State.
Bleeding Heartland argues:
The Professor is a fraud, of course — but by the end, we don’t hate him. In fact, he delivers more hope and harmony than River City had before.
Fast-forward to Des Moines in 2025, and the story feels strangely familiar. Only this time, the man with the dream wasn’t selling trombones — he was selling himself. Dr. Ian Roberts, the new superintendent, told us he had the Ph.D., the MIT pedigree, and the big awards. He signed the forms, shook the hands, and inspired the community to believe again. The city wanted to believe. We all wanted to believe.
Bleeding Heartland posits that Ian Roberts’ tale may end on an upbeat note, but color me skeptical. The question here isn’t so much “who watches the watchmen” as “who educates the educators”? As my father would say, “Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment”, and in this case, there’s plenty of “bad judgment” to go around.