Ian Roberts, the illegal alien who ran the Des Moines, Iowa, public schools until he was placed on paid leave, was earning more than four times the annual salary of the average American and was a registered voter in Maryland since 2012.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement snared Des Moines schools superintendent Roberts on September 26 during a targeted enforcement in the Hawkeye State capital.
Since the arrest, which ICE announced on Saturday, several disturbing details about Roberts’ rise to become a member of the upper class, despite being in the country illegally and having a prior weapons charge.
The Iowa Board of Educational Examiners revoked Roberts’ license to serve as superintendent yesterday in a letter to the illegal alien.
The Department of Homeland Security averred that Roberts is “a criminal illegal alien from Guyana” who was arrested while possessing a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash and a fixed blade hunting knife.” the Department of Homeland Security reported.
He was not authorized to work in the United States and received a final order of deportation in May 2024. He entered the United States on a student visa in 1999. The ATF is investigating how he acquired the handgun.
The Des Moines School Board chairman, Jackie Norris, a former chief of staff for former First Lady Michelle Obama and a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, confessed that Roberts lied on his application for the superintendent’s post by claiming he is a citizen. That lie passed muster despite a hiring consultant’s supposed vetting of Roberts.
Despite the lie, Norris demanded “radical empathy” for the illegal alien.
“It seems fitting 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 said, the Des Moines Register reported:
Radical empathy is the recognition that we can disagree and still empathize with each other, the respect of others, humanity. This concept will be essential as we wait to learn more.
The newspaper helpfully curated the reaction of other far-left, open-borders Democrats, along with Republicans more concerned about law and order.
“This is not only unacceptable, it is an outright disgrace,” state House member Larry McBurney fumed in a deleted Facebook post:
Our schools should never be treated as political battlegrounds for federal overreach.
Whether they should be treated as a playground for gun-toting illegals McBurney didn’t say, but in any event, he continued:
I hold President Trump and Iowa’s delegation — Congressman Zach Nunn, Senator Chuck Grassley, and Senator Joni Ernst — directly responsible for this action. Their silence or complicity will not go unnoticed. If they have any shred of leadership, they must intervene immediately.
Julie Staunch, candidate for governor, railed at GOP Governor Kim Reynolds.
“Kim Reynolds, RESIGN TODAY,” she wrote on X. “ICE does NOT belong in Iowa! You have failed this state. Resign!”
The elderly Staunch continued spewing vitriol in a video:
This message is for Kim Reynolds and it’s a serious message. Right now, an acclaimed superintendent in the city of Des Moines has been arrested by ICE, who have clearly demonstrated they have no law enforcement training.
Kim, you are the governor of the people of Iowa.… ICE does not belong in this state. Resign. Today.
In fact, ICE agents have plenty of law-enforcement training. That explains how they arrested Roberts with a semi-automatic pistol and $3,000 in cash.
Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said he would await the report from ICE before commenting. Representative Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) said Roberts “should never be near children” considering the details of his arrest.
“If you live in Iowa, your tax dollars paid an illegal alien a $300,000 salary to oversee students and teachers,” Representative Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) wrote:
Unacceptable.
We need mass deportations now.
Roberts not only lied on his application to become superintendent, but also received a whopping salary of $270,000, his contract shows. He also received a payment of 14 percent of his salary — $37,800 — in a tax-sheltered annuity, along with a $600 per month car allowance. The average American earns $66,622.
Townhall Columnist Dustin Grage, citing Matt Morgan, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, revealed that Roberts was registered to vote in Maryland in 2012. “My sources close to the law firm representing Des Moines Schools say that the Roberts carries a Maryland ID available to certain visa holders,” Grage wrote on X.
“The thing that never happens happened again,” Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) replied. “Only Americans should vote in American elections. Pass the SAVE Act.”
The SAVE Act requires “documentary proof of U.S. citizenship” to vote in federal elections. It also forbids states to register a person to vote in those elections unless he provides that proof.
“Each state must take affirmative steps on an ongoing basis to ensure that only U.S. citizens are registered to vote, which shall include establishing a program to identify individuals who are not U.S. citizens using information supplied by certain sources,” the bill says.
The bill requires states to purge non-citizens from voter rolls.
A search of the voter rolls in Iowa did not return a result for “Ian Roberts” and his zip code.
Because “you no longer possess legal presence in the United States,” the Iowa Board of Education Examiners wrote to Roberts yesterday, “you [are] not able to hold a license” to be a superintendent.
H/T: Jonathan Turley