The Illegal Alien Who Served as a Des Moines Superintendent Has Been Sentenced
Hey, Men—You’ve Got Some Explaining (and Voting) to Do
May 29, 2026Hey, so remember this guy?
I wrote about that winner back in September, and now we finally have an update on the case. I sure hope Ian Roberts likes orange, because it looks like he is going to be sporting a jumpsuit for the next two years.
The former superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district was sentenced Friday to two years in federal prison for falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen.
“I regret what I’ve done every single day,” Ian Roberts said before U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger handed down the sentence.
Roberts’ sentence was closer to the three years in prison prosecutors had recommended than the probation his defense team asked for.
Explaining her decision, Ebinger said Roberts knowingly lied about his citizenship status to earn an “incredible position of trust.”
While the dozens of letters of support that were submitted on Roberts’ behalf were powerful, she said probation was not a sufficient sentence.
Upon completing his sentence, Roberts will likely be deported to his native Guyana.
Before the hearing, Roberts’ lawyers told the judge that he fled his homeland in 1994 because he had been a police officer and was “seeking safety from his undercover drug work.”
Was the loaded handgun they caught him with also part of the “seeking safety” thing? What about lying to become a superintendent and overseeing children?
Also, WHO WAS WRITING LETTERS OF SUPPORT FOR THIS GUY?!
Overall, I am very torn about this situation. On one hand, I think he deserves longer. On another, I don’t want to use my tax dollars to feed and house him for more time. It would be nice just to send him back to Guyana now, but I also think he needs to pay for what he did. I’m not confident the government of Guyana would lock him up, so two years here will have to do I guess.
