(Des Moines, IA) — Senator Chuck Grassley says there is no record of Des Moines Public Schools using E-Verify in the employment of its former Superintendent. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Ian Roberts on September 26th for his alleged criminal background. Officials have since questioned how Roberts was hired and why the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify tool wasn’t used to cross-reference federal records for work authorization. Senator Grassley now argues that using the program would have prevented Roberts’ employment, although E-Verify is not a mandatory service in the state.
Des Moines Public Schools announced on October 3rd that it is suing JG Consulting, which is the firm that helped hire Roberts. According to the school board’s chair, the district is suing JG Consulting because “the search firm failed in their duty to properly vet the candidates and Ian Roberts should have never been presented as a potential Superintendent.”
Roberts first came to the U.S. from Guyana in 1999 under a student visa, and authorities allege he had removal orders from a judge last year as well as a weapons charge in 2020.
