An Iowa school superintendent who is reportedly an illegal alien is still being paid despite his detainment and arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to school officials.
The Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS) board voted this week to place superintendent Ian Andre Roberts, 54, on “paid leave.”
In the meantime, the board chose to install associate superintendent Matt Smith as the interim superintendent, according to the The Des Moines Register.
“While there is still much we don’t know, what we do know is that Dr. Roberts is currently unavailable to perform his duties as superintendent based on Iowa Code,” DMPS board member Kim Martorano said during a live-streamed board hearing Friday.
“Based on Iowa Code 52, Chapter 279 and standard district practice, the motion is to place Dr. Roberts on a paid administrative leave pending further information,” she added.
According to The New York Times, Roberts’ base salary is roughly $286,000.
The meeting Friday was called after ICE agents arrested Roberts earlier that morning for being in the U.S. illegally. His arrest was complicated by his decision to reportedly flee from the authorities.
“During a targeted enforcement operation on Sept. 26, 2025, officers approached Roberts in his vehicle after identifying himself, but he sped away,” ICE said in a written news release.
Will Roberts eventually be fired outright?
“Officers later discovered his vehicle abandoned near a wooded area. State Patrol assisted in locating the subject and he was taken into ICE custody,” the news release continued.
Roberts was found to be in possession of a loaded handgun despite previous weapon possession charges from 2020. ICE stressed that illegal aliens aren’t allowed to have firearms or ammo.
According to ICE, Roberts legally entered the U.S. in 1999 from Guyana on a student visa but overstayed that visa and was given a final order of removal by an immigration judge years later in 2024.
As to how Roberts was ever hired, DMPS board chair Jackie Norris has alleged that he’d passed all the required verification and background checks prior to being granted his superintendent license in 2023.
Norris previously served as the chief of staff to former Vice President Michelle Obama.
So you mean to tell me that MICHELLE OBAMA’S chief of staff hired an illegal alien with a fake degree & a criminal record to be the head of the public schools in Des Moines, Iowa? https://t.co/jWaPcaZ4Ud
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) September 27, 2025
“Everything the district has on file indicates that Dr. Roberts affirmed that he was a citizen who was eligible to work in the school district,” Norris said, according to The Register.
Norris added that when an FBI criminal background check was conducted on Roberts on behalf of the Iowa Department of Education, nothing concerning was found.
“[T]he school district ensured that a background check was conducted before hiring Dr. Roberts,” she explained. “That is done for every person who is hired by the district, and periodic reviews are conducted on a regular basis for all current employees.”
DMPS was assisted in its efforts in finding a superintendent by JG Consulting, which conducted its own array of “criminal, credit and background checks,” all of which Roberts purportedly passed.
Some congressional Republicans like Iowa Rep. Ashley Hinson have called for Roberts’ deportation not only because of his status as an illegal alien but also for promoting what the Times calls “racial equity efforts.”
🚨 ICE arrested the Superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, Ian Andre Roberts — an illegal alien from Guyana & active ICE fugitive with a deportation order since May 2024. When ICE caught him, agents found a loaded gun, a hunting knife, and $3,000 in cash.
He should be…
— Ashley Hinson (@hinsonashley) September 26, 2025
As previously documented, so-called “racial equity” is a subversive ideology that calls for rectifying past discrimination against black Americans by practicing modern discrimination against white Americans, Asian Americans, and others.
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