Former Des Moines Superintendent Learns His Fate In Citizenship Lie And Gun Case

The man who ran Iowa’s largest school district is going to federal prison.

On May 29, 2026, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger sentenced former Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Ian Andre Roberts to 24 months behind bars.

Roberts pleaded guilty to false statement for employment and illegal alien in possession of a firearm. After he serves his time, he is expected to be handed to ICE and deported to Guyana.

This was the superintendent of a district serving roughly 30,000 students.

BREAKING: Former Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Ian Roberts, sentenced to 2 years in federal prison for falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen and illegally firearm possession.

After he serves his sentence he will be turned over to ICE and likely deported to Guyana. pic.twitter.com/welDz9R8kQ

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 29, 2026

The collapse of his career started with a targeted ICE enforcement operation in September 2025. ICE said Roberts was a Guyana national living under a final order of removal with no work authorization.

According to ABC News, the sentence included about eight months of credit for time already served, and Roberts’ attorney did not plan to appeal.

Prosecutors had asked for 37 months. The defense asked for probation to speed up his removal.

The Justice Department put the false-citizenship and firearm admissions this way:

The former Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent pleaded guilty today to both charges against him.

Ian Andre Roberts, 55, entered guilty pleas to False Statement for Employment and Illegal Alien in Possession of a Firearm.

According to public court documents, Roberts falsely stated that he was a United States citizen on employment paperwork related to his position at the Des Moines Public Schools in June 2023. Roberts was not and has never been a United States citizen.

On September 26, 2025, Roberts knowingly possessed a loaded Glock pistol in his vehicle while knowing that he was unlawfully present in the United States.

On the same day, Roberts also possessed three additional firearms at his residence, including a loaded pistol, a loaded rifle, and a shotgun.

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement described the arrest and removal-order background this way:

Today, ICE Des Moines arrested Ian Andre Roberts, a criminal illegal alien from Guyana in possession of a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash and a fixed blade hunting knife. At the time of his arrest, Roberts was working as the Superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools despite being an illegal alien with a final order of removal and no work authorization.

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.

Roberts has existing weapon possession charges from February 5, 2020. Roberts entered the United States in 1999 on a student visa and was given a final order of removal by an immigration judge in May of 2024.

So for more than a year, a man already ordered out of the country was sitting atop a public school system, drawing a public salary, inside a public bureaucracy that did not catch it.

That is the part parents should keep asking about. The vetting failed at every level that was supposed to protect kids and taxpayers.

The Guyana angle is more than biography. It is where the case appears headed once the prison term is finished.

Guyana-born school superintendent Ian Roberts gets 2 years in federal prison.
He will be deported back to Guyana after serving his time.

Full story: https://t.co/zNGMn2Zppb #Guyana #Caribbean #IanRoberts #Immigration #CaribbeanNews #NewsAmericasNow pic.twitter.com/clEyqBxPTd

— Caribbean Diaspora News | News Americas (@NewsAmericasNow) May 30, 2026

Roberts will do his time, then board a plane to Guyana. The lesson for every school board in the country is simpler than the paperwork he faked: verify before you hand someone authority over a district serving 30,000 students.