It Definitely Looks Like I Was Wrong About The Iowa School Superintendent Arrested By ICE
from the but-what-will-ICE-learn-from-this dept
A lot has happened since last week when my post about Des Moines (IA) school superintendent Ian Roberts being arrested by ICE first hit the front page here at Techdirt. A lot of new information has come to light, almost all of it obtained by Des Moines Register journalists, which indicates the arrested man may not have been the man he pretended to be (a legal migrant with only the slightest amount of previous legal troubles).
He very much appeared to be the person others thought he was, though. And while that’s something, it’s certainly not enough to make a bunch of past criminal charges and some discrepancies on his educational history completely irrelevant. Roberts doesn’t appear to be a con artist and actually seems to have been a very well-liked and respected school administrator. But that doesn’t excuse the route he took to get there.
It also doesn’t excuse any of the wrong assumptions I made in my original post. I don’t enjoy being wrong and I don’t go out of my way to make careless mistakes, but sometimes it happens. And for that, I apologize. Readers trust this site to provide them with facts and intelligent analysis. My post didn’t have enough of either.
My assumptions were the problem here. The post itself is linked to several sources and contains a lot of direct quotes from people about Ian Roberts, as well as ICE’s own press release about the arrest. I drew the conclusion that the mugshot released by ICE couldn’t possibly be the same person ICE arrested, but it’s definitely possible that I got that wrong.
I also suggested ICE’s timeline in terms of criminal charges and immigration incidents didn’t line up with the facts. It still seems to be off, but that very well could be because Ian Roberts’ bio (at least as presented to schools he attended, as well as those hiring him in Des Moines) might have some factual holes of its own.
I’ll run down the recent findings by Des Moines journalists so you can weigh that against the assertions and assumptions I made in my post. But I must point out that a lot of this is drawn from the DHS’s release of Roberts’ criminal record, some of which has yet to be independently verified. (I’ll also point out the obvious: this is hardly the sort of rap sheet that should result in someone being called the “worst of the worst” and who should “never have been able to work around children,” as DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claims in the DHS press release.)
- July 3, 1996: Charges for criminal possession of narcotics with intent to sell, criminal possession of narcotics, criminal possession of a forgery instrument and possession of a forged instrument in New York.
- Nov. 13, 1998: A charge for third-degree unauthorized use of a vehicle in Queens, New York, which was dismissed July 6, 1999.
- Nov. 1, 2012: A conviction for reckless driving, unsafe operation and speeding in Maryland.
- Feb. 3, 2020: Charges for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon (having a loaded firearm outside his home or business); third-degree criminal possession of a weapon (an ammunition feeding device); and fourth-degree weapon charges. A document from Feb. 4, 2020, indicates that the second-degree criminal possession charge was inchoate.
- Jan. 20, 2022: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania convicted Roberts of unlawful possession of a loaded firearm.
- Sept. 26, 2025: Roberts was arrested with a Glock 9mm pistol and a fixed-blade hunting knife in his possession. He also had $3,000 in cash.
- Oct. 2, 2025: Roberts criminally charged with being an illegal alien in possession of firearms.
The last two charges are from his arrest by federal officers last week. The previous charges are a blend of weapons charges and moving violations. “Third degree unauthorized use of a vehicle” is a fancy way of saying “borrowed mom’s car without permission” or “drove a company vehicle home during a lunch break.”
As for the weapons charges, that’s more problematic. Roberts’ bio states he’s an avid hunter, which might explain him having guns in places he wasn’t supposed to, but doesn’t explain how he had any guns in the first place, if he wasn’t legally allowed to have them. But nothing in that list (other than the criminal possession charge that never materialized) suggests it was illegal for him to have them, only that he shouldn’t have had them where he had them and/or the after-market products that made them illegal.
Still, you’d think a screening for a position involving managing schools would have raised more red flags than it did, which is probably why the school district is now suing the third-party that performs employment screenings.
The DHS press release also offers up a list of his movements in and out of the country. But the list doesn’t really say much other than Roberts entered and exited the country frequently, with some of the dates aligning with visa expirations. The list also shows Roberts dutifully applied for some form of legal status when re-entering the US (if the previous authorization had expired), which doesn’t do much for DHS’s narrative that Roberts was not only a gun-carrying threat to public safety but routinely ignored his obligations on the legal residence front. In fact, it states the opposite. When he was arrested (and this is based on DHS’s unverified assertions), he had most likely only been in the country illegally since April 24 of this year.
So, while he’s not the choirboy I may have presented him as, he’s definitely not the sort of dangerous criminal ICE should be focused on. He has, in fact, obtained multiple degrees. He was respected and liked while he was still a school superintendent. He was a former Olympic athlete who appeared to have found something he could do well and — even given the list provided by the DHS — had not been in any serious (or unserious) legal trouble for the past five years.
That being said, I’m not here to let myself off the hook. With ICE doing what it’s doing day after day, it’s extremely easy to assume the worst and just run with it. Obviously, not every arrest ICE performs is unjustified. And the government will still round up some people who truly deserve to be arrested and deported due to their criminal activity.
But, at this point, truly justified arrests by ICE are just the result of it spamming so-called “enforcement efforts” that are the ultimate example of biased policing. Arrest enough people of any race, color, or creed and you’re bound to end up catching the occasional “worst of the worst.” But that’s not how America is supposed to work. The government is supposed to restrain itself, respect rights, and perform careful investigations. This government does none of that.
Instead, this administration has shrugged off — if not outright rejected — the guiding principles of governance. On a daily basis, it steamrolls rights, ignores court orders, arrests people en masse just because they’re the wrong race, and is doing this not just for the immediate effect, but to ensure it has burned the Republic to the ground and salted the earth before Trump exits office… something that’s definitely not guaranteed. ICE has been unleashed and encouraged to be the worst it can be. And now that it’s done that, it’s being showered with billions in tax dollars and exempted from the government shutdown the administration is using as an excuse to fire any government employees DOGE didn’t get around to shitcanning prior to Elon Musk exiting the administration and promising to start his own bigoted political party.
ICE doesn’t get let off the hook just because I decided to give myself a headstart over the facts. And I realize that admitting fault in public just encourages people who argue in bad faith to do so more frequently in the future. The government (and its vocal supporters) will always be the first to find fault in any inadequate or inaccurate reporting and use that to smear an entire vocation. If I get something wrong, I’ll admit it. This administration will never give the public the same respect. When others are wrong, they’re pilloried. When this government is wrong, it chooses to blame everyone else when not choosing to simply double down on its wrongness.
We don’t do that here. We appreciate you giving us your attention and will always strive to earn your respect and loyalty. My apologies for blowing this one. And I will be more careful in the future.
Filed Under: des moines school district, dhs, ian roberts, ice, mass deportation, trump administration
Comments on “It Definitely Looks Like I Was Wrong About The Iowa School Superintendent Arrested By ICE”
And… Why should we believe this?
Even before everything since trump it wasn’t unheard of for cops to get someone who shares the same name, or to link things to the completely wrong person.
Add that dhs is lying its ass off daily and I have trouble believing their narrative.
Sorry about the crow, but I salute you owning the error.
Given that this administration lies regularly, its very hard to accept things they claim are true.
His autism tattoo PROVED his membership in TdA!!!
Statements and written releases often are not worth the paper they are written on. (just ask some judges)
I still have faith in you, mainly because you don’t mumble you might have misreported something, you admit fault, accept fault, explain how the fault came to be, & promise to try harder.
As a small consolation at least your not the background check service they were using. Does anyone think that at the same time they filed the lawsuit they considered the very serious problems if they replied on the same service to review others who now have access to children?
Information and history
Are the best teachers.
And YOU post your Admissions, on the front page, not in Obits.
Trying to get Facts at this time is Digging thru the BS, and Sorting the Lumps.
Kristi Noem...
Kristi Noem would never admit if she was wrong. Good on you owning up to your mistake.
Re: That's not just her problem
Kristi Noem not admitting fault is probably the least of her problems. Her canine-murdering and her racist crusade against brown indigenous people whether in her (and Tim Cushing’s) home state of South Dakota or as secretary of DHS seem more exhibitive of her evil.
You’re a terrible person Tim, and this proves it. 😉
He appears to have fooled everyone. But then that includes the Federal government itself, more than once. Aside from anything else in the background check he passed the eVerify check which said he was a US citizen. And he had a Social Security card, which required him to satisfy the government about his citizenship. By all rights the Feds should also be facing a judge’s questions about how they screwed up so badly and what they’re doing to correct that, and why anyone else should be accepting their word on status documentation when their claim now is that we can’t trust their word on it when they issue said documentation.
For the charges, only the 1996 one looks at all serious and even it could as easily be “got caught at 17 with a fake driver’s license and a bit too much marijuana” as “serious drug dealer”. The rest are frankly the kinds of charges three-quarters of PA have on their record amounting to “went hunting and didn’t take the clip out of the rifle afterwards”.
Re:
I doubt it went on the records of that many.
I was immediately wondering how many of those nothingburger charges he’d still have gotten if he was white.
Re: Nobody verified employment authorization, no eVerify was submitted
Latest update states that Des Moines Public Schools has never been enrolled in the E-Verify system, did not use it in vetting for this hire.
SSN proves somebody had at some point received work authorization, not citizenship.
A non-immigrant alien with a valid work authorization (such as what Roberts held up to 2020) can also get a Social Security Card.
Normally a non-citizen’s card would be “restricted” with a notion such as “VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH INS AUTHORIZATION“, and the person accepting the I-9 should have asked for a Employment Authorization Document and/or submitted the applicant to E-Verify.
Charges v Convictions
First off, thank you for owning your mistakes.
Secondly, the DHS press release refers to charges AND convictions. Given the presumption of innocence, the charges that didn’t result in convictions are irrelevant; McLaughlin purpose in including them serves only to smear Roberts.
PS I live near Sydney and spent a couple of days at the 2000 Olympics; who knows, I may have actually seen him 😀
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Wild that some of the people targeted for ethnic cleansing have a rap sheet. I thought they were all perfect angels.
Re:
Hi there, Stephen Miller. Did you get a boner only by thinking about ICE killing brown people, or did you need Viagra to help?
Re: Re:
He would definitely need some blood for that, regardless.
Re: Re:
I guess TD thinks people normally use “ethnic cleansing” in a positive sense. Or is it not obvious that if you target enough people from a group a couple of them will have a record? Not only is it guaranteed, but those proud few are likely much more interesting to talk to.
Well, to put this in perspective, he is a community member. We are talking about Iowa, a state where hunting just is a normal pastime for community members. Most of the charges are of the “possessing some kind of weapon while not being a citizen” kind.
The Glock does not appear like a hunting weapon at first sight but could be a “finishing gun” for dealing with injured game. A fixed blade certainly also is a hunter’s tool (and hunting is even more of a common thing in PA than in IA).
Essentially, imagine the typical superintendent born in the U.S. and the vast bulk of the charges would not exist. There are citations for reckless drivings, of course, too. But very spread out.
But I don’t really see a lot that would indicate the company vetting him were acting recklessly or applying a double standard. The most you can blame them for is that they apparently were not applying the double standard expected of them in the age of the Trump administration.
Retrospectively. So they are to blame for not hedging for the presidential election outcome.
Well, wrong about his CV anyway. ICE is more wrong.
What problem?
So without evidence, you assumed a man innocent. And also assumed a government agency known for misrepresenting or outright fabricating evidence were doing so yet again.
You updated the record as new, real evidence came to light.
I’m not seeing the problem here…?
Re:
He didn’t assert that Roberts was innocent, he asserted that Roberts wasn’t the correct man. That’s the problem.
If so, I definitely want to know his surgeon, that’s an impressive nose job!
“possession of a forged instrument”
Just makes it sound like he was caught trying to hawk a knockoff Stradivarius 😀
Re:
He’d just had dental scraper made at the blacksmith’s.
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You guys have never held yourselves to journalistic standards before, why start now?
Admitting error–proof you’re no Donald Trump. It really isn’t a reach to assume those who spew a constant barrage of accusations and outrage ‘untethered to the facts’ are lying, it is what the default position needs to be if you want to be right far more than wrong.
Tim, I applaud you for this post. No restrictions or caveats. I applaud you. I respect this post, and it’s the reason I come here for your perspective. Thank you.
Like this government law enforcement, an analog clock is also right twice a day. I can perfectly understand and forgive you assuming they were in the wrong. Specially when you recognize what leaded to the mistake, apologized and vowed to do better in an entire article thoroughly explaining the issue. I say we need more journalism like this, one that strives to be responsible and trustful and recognizes and fixes their mistakes when they inevitably happen.
I say kudos. This actually makes me trust your reporting even more.
Thanks
While you could have spent much less time caveating it, I appreciate the apology. This site’s credibility is one of its foundational strengths and if it goes, the whole thing goes.
(And no, as some other commenter tried to argue, being better than Kristi Noem is not the bar you’re aiming for)
Scammer
Well, now it’s coming out that Roberts was hiring his own outside consulting for the school districts and charging lots of money. He’s a scammer.
https://www.kcci.com/article/des-moines-ian-roberts-consulting-firm-ties-lively-paradox/68990697
Well, the main factor is you are a confused individual. If this was Joe Biden or Obama nobody would say a word but Donald Trump, who is not my favorite person. He’s trying to clean up a country that has been let go for years. This individual in Iowa was supposed to be deported in 2024. He consistently violated the process that he supposed to follow. He lied to parents of children that are being educated. He also has a cohort doctor price that he works with that has yet to be discovered they’ve been fraud people since 2016 claiming to have books published when their self published books that they buy no one else does You need to take your head out of you know where and realized that what’s written on our statue of liberty does not allow people to come here illegally like they have been and then looking at Americans that have been raised in this country thinking they’re better because they are entitled to get everything free enough is enough young man find another job where you understand what you’re talking about
Re:
Fuck off to nazi germany where you clearly want to live