Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said the case surrounding Dr. Ian Andre Roberts, the now-arrested superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, exposes serious failures in public-sector hiring practices.
Roberts, a native of Guyana, was arrested last Friday after allegedly fleeing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who approached him while he was inside a taxpayer-funded Des Moines Public Schools vehicle.
According to Pappert, authorities say Roberts drove off in the taxpayer-funded vehicle before abandoning it. A firearm was recovered from the vehicle, and when Roberts was eventually located and taken into custody, officials allegedly found a fixed-blade hunting knife and $3,000 in cash.
Roberts reportedly came to the U.S. in 1999 on a student visa, which he never renewed. Despite having overstayed that visa for over 20 years, Roberts pursued multiple advanced degrees, including a Doctor of Education from Trident University, and held several leadership roles in public education. In 2023, he was hired to lead the Des Moines school system.
A key point in Roberts’ case, Pappert said, is the 2024 final order of removal issued against Roberts after he failed to appear at an immigration hearing. Though he attempted to reopen the case in April 2025, the judge denied his request.
At this point, Pappert said he believes Roberts should have informed the school board of his imminent deportation.
“If he disagreed with the decision that he should be deported, he should have appealed this removal decision,” Pappert explained on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“If you don’t like something, you appeal it. You don’t ignore it and keep showing up to work every day, pretending as though it doesn’t exist,” he added.
Pappert raised questions about how Roberts passed background checks and received a high-level public position while allegedly lacking legal work authorization.
Noting how a school district official reportedly said an FBI background check listed Roberts as a U.S. citizen, Pappert said, “Something is clearly flawed when it comes to their due diligence.”
Beyond Roberts’s immigration status, Pappert noted prior legal concerns, including a 2020 incident in which Roberts was allegedly found in possession of a hunting rifle, which, under U.S. law, is illegal.
Pappert speculated that this may have accelerated ICE’s interest in the case, saying, “My hunch is that this rifle sped up the immigration officials’ pursuit into his case and by 2024, they were finally able to…issue him a final deportation order.”
Regarding public-sector hiring practices, Pappert stated he believes Roberts’ case should raise serious concerns and empower conservatives in Republican-led states to increase oversight of hiring practices in Democrat-led cities, such as Des Moines.
“I certainly hope that this is an opportunity for conservatives—even in blue cities, in a red state like Des Moines, Iowa—to reflect and consider how they might restrain local school boards and local districts from making ridiculous employment decisions like hiring an illegal immigrant in the future,” Pappert said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Ian Roberts” by Des Moines Public Schools.
