This story will be updated with more information.
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Former Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Ian Roberts of Guyana has been charged with illegally possessing four firearms while in the U.S. without legal status, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed Thursday that provides detailed allegations about Roberts’ immigration status and arrest.
Roberts was ordered removed from the U.S. in absentia in May 2024, and according to the complaint, an immigration judge denied a request to reopen Roberts’ case on April 30, 2025. The complaint states Roberts has not been authorized to work in the U.S. since Dec. 18, 2020. He was hired by DMPS in 2023.
The complaint stated that after ICE agents arrested Roberts last Friday morning, a DMPS employee came to pick up the district-owned car that Roberts was driving. Inside, the DMPS employee found a loaded firearm wrapped in a towel under the driver’s seat. The complaint stated the gun was bought by a woman believed to be Roberts’ wife.
Federal agents found three more firearms in Roberts’ house, according to the complaint. They also said they found Roberts’ deportation order and other immigration papers under the floor mat of a car in Roberts’ garage.
Roberts will be held in federal custody pending further legal proceedings, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.
He was no longer being held in the Woodbury County jail as of Thursday morning, according to the county sheriff’s office.
New criminal complaint describes some of Roberts’ immigration history
Roberts entered the U.S. in 1999 on an F-1 student visa, which expired in 2004, according to the complaint unsealed Thursday. But he graduated from Coppin State University in 1998, and his attorney declined to say on Tuesday when Roberts first entered the country.
Roberts filed applications in 2001 and 2018 to try to become a lawful permanent resident, but his applications were denied.
His most recent application for a Green Card, according to the complaint, was filed in July 2018 based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen. Roberts’ application was denied in January 2020 because he “failed to respond to a request for additional information.”
According to the criminal complaint, Roberts had lawful employment authorization from Dec. 18, 2018, to Dec. 18, 2020. Since then, the complaint alleges Roberts has not been authorized to work in the U.S. He served as a school superintendent in Pennsylvania and in Des Moines during that time.
The complaint includes a copy of the final order of removal issued to Roberts in May 2024, which states that Roberts failed to appear for his hearing at the time. The criminal complaint also states, “On April 30, 2025, an immigration judge denied Roberts’ motion to reopen the proceedings, finding Roberts had failed to demonstrate that he did not receive notice of the May 22, 2024 hearing.”
On Tuesday, Roberts’ attorney, Alfredo Parrish, said Roberts believed his immigration case had been resolved. He distributed a letter from Roberts’ prior immigration attorney stating, “your case has reached a successful resolution.”
According to the complaint, the prior attorney, Jackeline Gonzalez, told federal officials the letter was meant to convey Roberts’ case was being closed in her office, not with the immigration court. She said she filed in January 2025 to withdraw as his lawyer because of unpaid legal bills.
