The Ian Roberts Case: A Vetting Failure

Without spending a dime and expending less than half an hour of the personnel department’s time, the Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS) system could have learned that its former superintendent Ian Roberts was an illegal alien with an extensive criminal history. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley (R) said in a press release, "The E-Verify program cannot find any record that DMPS has ever been enrolled in E-Verify..." Grassley said that the Department of Homeland Security also added that if an E-Verify case had been created using an expired Employment Authorization Document, apparently Roberts’ case, it would have resulted in a non-confirmation.

Instead of relying on the mostly infallible E-Verify, DMPS irresponsibly forged ahead, spent nearly $100,000 to hire the Texas-based placement firm JG Consulting to vet Roberts, paid the new superintendent $300,000 annually and is now frittering away big money to lawyers to sue JG and Roberts---at best, long shots to succeed in court.

With every passing day, the scandal around DMPS’s hiring of Guyanese flim-flam man Roberts as its principal grows more incredible. In a desperate but too late effort to save face, DMPS filed a law suit for breach of contract and negligence against JG Consulting, the Texas-based firm that conducted the search that culminated in the hiring of former superintendent Roberts employment. Roberts has just been released from federal custody as he awaits deportation.

In a self-serving statement that perpetuates the lie that Roberts earned a Ph.D., Jackie Norris, DMPS board chair insisted that “the search firm failed in its duty to properly vet the candidates and Dr. Roberts should have never been presented as a potential superintendent.” Roberts had repeatedly claimed that he had obtained a Ph.D. from Morgan State University. The school confirmed that although Roberts was enrolled in university classes from November 2003 to November 2007, he never received a degree of any kind. As more information trickles out, Iowans have learned that DMPS knew that Roberts did not have a doctorate degree from Morgan State but proceeded, nevertheless. DMPS was engaged in an illegal DEI hiring program that likely gave preference to Roberts because he is a black African who they incorrectly thought was a legal immigrant. DMPS paid $83,901 to the nonprofit New Leaders to help them design an illegal race-based hiring program. At one time, Roberts appeared on the New Leaders website as an alum of their program. New Leaders and its internal equity policies could be in violation of Iowa’s new diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ban, which took effect statewide in July 2025.

Before DMPS hired Roberts, Millcreek Township School District (MTSD) published a letter to community members in which it admitted that district was "profoundly misled" during the hiring process when it named Roberts the district's superintendent. Specifically, MTSD claims that the search agency it used to vet Roberts had not been made it aware of the Guyanese national’s previous criminal charges, which it calls an "egregious breach of trust that was perpetrated by Roberts."

As per a Department of Homeland Security press release, Roberts entered New York City in 1994 on a B-2 non-immigrant tourist visas. Two years later, in 1996, authorities charged Roberts with criminal possession of narcotics with intent to sell, criminal possession of narcotics, criminal possession of a forgery instrument and possession of a forged instrument. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Serviced denied Roberts’ green card applications on four separate occasions.

*On March 8, 1999, Roberts entered the U.S. through California’s San Francisco International Airport as an F-1 student visa holder. The visa was set to expire March 7, 2004. He departed the U.S. on an unknown date.

*On June 28, 1999: Roberts reentered the U.S. through San Francisco on the same F-1 student visa. He departed the U.S. on an unknown date.

*On August 30, 1999, he again reentered the U.S. at JFK International Airport on the same student visa.

*On Feb. 9, 2000: Roberts filed an application for employment authorization, which U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved April 5, 2000, with an expiration date of April 1, 2001.

Roberts, a hardened criminal with guns and drug charges against him, should never be allowed around children. The board has disgraced itself and lost, for years to come, any credibility in the community. The first step toward its redemption is to admit the foolishness of its ways and the taxpayer dollars squandered and publicly resign. Complete forgiveness is in the distant future. Blame also lays with Democrat and Republican controlled Congresses for refusing to mandate E-Verify, a program that has been around in different form since 1997 and instantly identified Roberts as not employment authorized.

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org