Tag: iowa

Des Moines Election Proves Once Again You Can’t Fix Stupid

As the old man used to say, you can’t fix stupid. He had a cupboard full of old man aphorisms, but that one remains one of my favorites. 

The expression definitely fits the blue states and blue cities that just elected — or reelected — far-left politicians to lead them deeper into the promised land of failure. Apparently, these voters said, “We don’t have enough crime, homelessness, poverty, misery. Let’s throw some gas on this dumpster fire and see what happens.”

If anything, Tuesday’s elections underscored the left’s disinterest in accountability, at least when it comes to their candidates. Case in point, the Democrats of Des Moines. 

‘Radical Empathy’

Voters in Iowa’s capital city rewarded the people who hired an illegal immigrant with a long rap sheet to serve as the school district’s superintendent. Incumbents Maria Alonzo and Skylar Mayberry-Mayes were reelected to four-year terms in Tuesday’s school board election. Mayberry-Mayes ran uncontested. 

The incumbents were part of the seven-member board that unanimously voted in 2023 to hire DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) candidate Ian Roberts as superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools. In late September, the board members apparently were surprised to learn that the walking fraud they once gushed over was not only an illegal immigrant from Guyana, but that he had been in possession of a loaded handgun and $3,000 cash when he was apprehended in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement enforcement operation. 

The coming days would be difficult for a district led by School Board Chairwoman Jackie Norris, Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff and a Democrat with higher political aspirations. Even as evidence of Roberts’ not-so-secret past came to light, Norris called on Des Moines residents to “take a page out of Dr. Roberts’ book and ask the community to engage in radical empathy as we work through the situation together.”

Norris and the nation would soon learn that Roberts was no doctor. He had lied about receiving his doctoral degree from Morgan State University years before, among other suspect accomplishments on his resume. The Des Moines School Board knew that when they hired him to lead Iowa’s largest public school district, yet district officials frequently referred to him as Dr. Roberts, Iowa Public Radio reported. 

DEI Champion

Roberts certainly wasn’t forthcoming about his lengthy criminal record, which should have precluded him from remaining in the United States years ago. His rap sheet includes charges of criminal possession of narcotics with intent to sell dating back to 1996. Roberts has been convicted of reckless driving, multiple criminal weapons charges, and, in September, the accompanying charge of possession of firearms by an illegal immigrant. 

To be fair, Roberts had long slipped through the cracks, it seems. School systems that hired him, including Des Moines Public Schools, are now suing the consultant that recommended Roberts.

But district officials were more interested in what Roberts represented than the potential skeletons in his closet. In introducing the black educrat as Des Moines’ new superintendent in 2023, Teree Caldwell-Johnson, Des Moines Public Schools Board chairwoman at the time, emphasized Roberts’ DEI bona fides. 

“There is no question that our search yielded a strong and diverse pool of candidates — Cultural, racial, ethnic, gender and orientation diversity were represented in the candidates that we considered. The bottom line: this board delivered on all fronts,” Caldwell-Johnson said. The former school board president, who died last year following a battle with cancer, celebrated the fact that the board was looking for candidates with “diverse urban experience,” someone who “would champion DEI at all levels of the organization.” 

Checking to see whether that DEI champion might be an illegal alien with a troubling criminal record was less a priority. 

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Criminal Illegal Alien Who Ran Des Moines Schools Registered As Maryland Voter

Ian Andre Roberts, the illegal alien ineligible for employment in the U.S. but hired in Iowa as superintendent at the Des Moines School District, is a registered Maryland voter.

By law, only U.S. citizens are allowed to register to vote in U.S. elections, but an election watchdog group, the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), looked into voter registration in states where Roberts previously lived and found he registered to vote as a Democrat twice, once in 2011 and again in 2016.

It raises questions about how many other illegal aliens or otherwise ineligible people have successfully registered to vote. As AAF president Tom Jones told Fox 45, “We can’t rely on the honor system to hope that illegal aliens won’t lie to us.”

The only citizenship verification on the Maryland voter registration form is a tiny box next to the question “Are you a U.S. citizen?” where the applicant checks yes or no.

Oddly, the documents AAF received from Prince George’s County Maryland concealed his answer. The Federalist asked the Prince George’s County  election office why it redacted that information. It did not respond.

The instructions tell applicants who answer “No” on the citizenship question to not complete the form, so we may assume Roberts lied and claimed to be a citizen since he completed the form, but as an illegal alien, Robert’s has a history of not following instructions. Because of the county’s redaction, we can’t be certain how he answered, so we can’t know if he lied or if he told the truth and the county overlooked it.

The form advises that lying on a voter registration is perjury punishable with up to five years in prison, if he is ever charged for it. Roberts is already incarcerated for his illegal immigration status; he is currently being held at the Council Bluffs, Iowa main jail in Polk County, the U.S. Marshals Service told The Federalist. As previously reported, Roberts has a criminal background, but was promoted through woke school systems.

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ICE Releases Illegal-alien School Superintendent’s Record

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has released the full criminal and immigration record of Ian Roberts, the illegal alien who somehow became the school superintendent in Des Moines, Iowa.

It’s a long record. The New York Post called his past a “sordid” one of “sex, lies and DEI payouts.” 

ICE arrested Roberts last week, and he resigned his nearly $300,000-a-year post shortly thereafter.

For its part, the Des Moines public school system is suing the company that was supposed to vet Roberts before he was hired.

Criminal Record

Roberts’ education career ended after ICE arrested the illegal alien from Guyana on September 26. The arrest cost him a $270,000-per-year salary plus generous fringe benefits.

Roberts was arrested with a loaded gun, a hunting knife, and $3,000 in cash, and tried to flee ICE when he was stopped. It turned out that he lied to the school board about his citizenship, and was registered to vote in Maryland. He falsely claimed to have earned a doctorate.

Now, ICE has revealed the details about his lengthy criminal career, aside from the charge of being an illegal alien in possession of a gun.

On July 3, 1996, in New York, he faced “charges 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,” ICE reported.

In November 1998, he faced a charge of unauthorized use of a vehicle in Queens, New York. The charge was later dismissed.

Fourteen years later, in Maryland, he was convicted of speeding, reckless driving, and unsafe operation.

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Des Moines school district sues firm behind hiring of illegal alien superintendent

Iowa’s largest public school district is suing the firm that helped it hire an illegal immigrant — Ian Roberts, who is now in Department of Justice custody — for negligence and breach of contract.

One-Fourth Consulting, which operates under its brand JG Consulting, was sued in the Iowa District Court for Polk County last week by the Des Moines Independent Community School District (DMICSD) for its role in hiring Roberts. 

Roberts was hired to be the superintendent of the district in May 2023 at a salary of $270,000.

Last month, Roberts was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He was subsequently charged with possession of illegal weapons after a loaded handgun was found in his car following his arrest.

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Illegal Alien Superintendent Lied About PhD, Loses License, And Earns District A DOJ Investigation Into DEI

Ian Roberts, the Iowa superintendent who was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement last Friday after fleeing from a traffic stop and ditching his district-issued vehicle (in which a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash and a hunting knife was recovered) – completely lied about his bona fides. 

He’s also lost his superintendent’s license, while the DOJ launched an investigation hours after ICE detained him. The 54-year-old native of Guyana entered the United States on a student visa in 1999, overstayed, lied on a form claiming he was eligible to work when he was hired in 2023, and now faces deportation. 

According to the Des Moines Register, Roberts never obtained a doctoral degree from Maryland university – something which would have been easy to verify during the vetting process. Roberts has “long stated that he received a doctoral degree from Morgan State University in Baltimore. But a university spokesperson told the Des Moines Register on Monday that Roberts did not obtain a degree from the school, despite attending Morgan State from the fall of 2002 through the spring of 2007.”

He attempted to obtain a doctorate in urban educational leadership. Despite his failure, Roberts has claimed on multiple occasions to have “completed” the degree at Morgan State, including in a 2009 self-published book. 

A November 2024 article published on the Des Moines Public School website claimed “Roberts excelled academically and… completed education programs at Coppin, St. John’s, Morgan State, Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business and an MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.”

Meanwhile, the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners revoked Roberts’ superintendent’s license on Sept. 29. 

What’s more, the Justice Department opened an investigation into the school district hours after Roberts was detained. According to the Washington Examiner, the DOJ wrote to interim superintendent Matthew Smith informing him of the investigation into the district’s alleged DEI programs. 

“Our investigation is based on information that DMPS may be engaged in employment practices that discriminate against employees, job applicants, and training program participants based on race, color, and national origin in violation of Title VII,” wrote Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon. 

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REVEALED: Former Des Moines Iowa Public Schools Superintendent – An Illegal Alien From Guyana – Is a Registered Democrat, Received Mail-in Ballots in Maryland

The former Des Moines, Iowa, Public Schools Superintendent who was illegally living in the US as an ICE fugitive is a registered Democrat and received mail-in ballots in Maryland.

ICE agents last Friday arrested the Superintendent of Des Moines, Iowa, Public Schools – an illegal alien from Guyana with a prior weapons arrest.

According to Fox News, Dr. Ian Andre Roberts was an active ICE fugitive with a deportation order since May 2024. As soon as ICE agents identified themselves, Roberts fled in his car and sped off. He then abandoned his car and fled on foot. Federal agents found him hiding in shrubbery and took him into custody.

Agents found a loaded handgun and a fixed-blade hunting knife in Roberts’ vehicle.

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Why it was easy for an illegal immigrant to land top job in Des Moines’ public schools

The arrest of an illegal immigrant serving as the Des Moines, Iowa, superintendent of schools has exposed a broader problem in America’s public education system: Few of them are using E-Verify, the federal government’s tool to weed out people not authorized to work.

Iowa has revoked the education license of Ian Andre Roberts, the Guyanese immigrant who was helming the state’s largest school system despite his defiance of a deportation order issued more than a year ago.

Late Monday, the school board voted to put him on unpaid leave, and said unless he proves his work status by Tuesday, he’ll be fired.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mr. Roberts on Friday, moving to enforce a final deportation order an immigration judge issued last year. Authorities said Mr. Roberts fled in his Des Moines-issued vehicle, then abandoned it and ran before being tracked down.

When officers later searched his vehicle, they found a handgun, which illegal immigrants cannot possess under the law.

ICE said the case should be a “wake-up call” to communities to better check their hires.

“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,” said Sam Olson, director of the ICE deportation field office that covers Des Moines.

Jackie Norris, chair of the school board, said Mr. Roberts claimed to be a citizen.

She said he presented a driver’s license and Social Security card and filled out Homeland Security’s I-9 form, the paper-based process for verifying someone is eligible to work. She said the school system had no reason to doubt his claims until last week.

But experts said if the school system had used E-Verify, it could have blocked him and avoided the embarrassing black eye.

“Every school district in the United States should be using E-Verify, if simply to protect the children they are responsible for,” said Rosemary Jenks, policy director at the Immigration Accountability Project.

E-Verify is voluntary at the federal level, though some states make it mandatory for employers within their borders. A bill to add Iowa to that list cleared the state Senate last year but did not make it through final passage.

Of the more than 10,000 school districts in the U.S., only a few hundred are listed as users of E-Verify in the program’s database, run by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

A few of those districts are in Iowa, including Storm Lake and the Ballard Community school districts. Des Moines is not among them.

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Des Moines Public Schools Placed Superintendent, an Illegal Alien Fugitive From Guyana, on PAID LEAVE — Board Chair Begs Public to “Cool Down the Rhetoric”: “Enough with the Name Calling… We are Talking About Human Being”

The scandal rocking Des Moines, Iowa, Public Schools has taken an even darker turn after revelations that Superintendent Dr. Ian Andre Roberts, an illegal alien fugitive from Guyana with a deportation order, was placed on paid leave following his dramatic arrest by ICE agents.

ICE agents on Friday arrested Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Ian Andre Roberts, an illegal alien fugitive from Guyana who had been living under a deportation order since May 2024.

According to Fox News reporter Bill Melugin, Roberts fled from ICE agents in his car once they identified themselves, speeding away before abandoning the vehicle and attempting to escape on foot. He was ultimately found hiding in shrubbery with the assistance of an Iowa State Police K9.

Inside his vehicle, agents recovered a loaded Glock 19 handgun, a fixed-blade hunting knife, and $3,000 in cash. Roberts reportedly has a prior weapons arrest dating back to 2020.

Despite this, Roberts was hired as Superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools in July 2023, after a national search process involving an outside firm.

He was granted a superintendent license by the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners in the same year, with an FBI criminal background check that somehow failed to flag his immigration issues.

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Democrats Rage, Leftist NGO Mobilizes After ICE Arrest Of Iowa’s Top School Superintendent

Democrats expressed “national outrage” after the ICE arrest of Ian Roberts, an illegal alien from Guyana who somehow became the Superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, the largest school district in Iowa. Roberts competed as an Olympic athlete and distance runner for Guyana 25 years ago, but this apparently didn’t help him escape immigration enforcement and his active warrants.

At the time of his arrest, Roberts was working as the Superintendent despite being an illegal alien with a final order of removal and no work authorization. He was caught with a firearm in his possession (which is illegal to carry for a non-citizen), as well as a hunting knife and $3000 cash. Roberts had previous warrants for weapons possession charges in February of 2020.  

Democrats claim that these ICE arrests and Trump’s deportation policies are directly to blame for the now numerous shootings committed by leftist activists. In other words, conservatives who are enforcing constitutional immigration laws are to blame when leftists try to kill them.

During a targeted enforcement operation on Sept. 26, 2025, officers approached Roberts in his vehicle after identifying himself, but he sped away. Officers later discovered his vehicle abandoned near a wooded area. State Patrol assisted in locating the subject and he was taken into ICE custody.

“This suspect was arrested in possession of a loaded weapon in a vehicle provided by Des Moines Public Schools after fleeing federal law enforcement,” said ICE ERO St. Paul Field Office Director Sam Olson. “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.”

The arrest spurred a protest outside the federal courthouse in Des Moines.

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The Details Surrounding ICE’s Arrest of Iowa School Superintendent Are Shocking

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested the Superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, Ian Andre Roberts, a criminal illegal alien from Guyana, on Thursday. 

Roberts, head of the largest public school district in the state, was in possession of a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash, and a fixed blade hunting knife at the time of his arrest, according to a statement from ICE. 

He entered the U.S. in 1999 on a student visa and in May of 2024, was given a final order of removal by an immigration judge. He also had existing weapon possession charges from 2020. 

Authorities approached Roberts during a targeted enforcement operation, but he fled in his vehicle, which was later found near a wooded area, ICE said. Iowa State Patrol assisted in locating Roberts. 

“This suspect was arrested in possession of a loaded weapon in a vehicle provided by Des Moines Public Schools after fleeing federal law enforcement,” said ICE ERO St. Paul Field Office Director Sam Olson in a statement. “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.”

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