DES MOINES, Iowa — Ian Roberts began this academic year as superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools in Iowa. He was on the rise, boasting of improved academic results and asking voters to approve more funding.

But on Friday, about a week before classes let out for the summer, Roberts was sentenced by a federal judge to two years in prison for lying about his citizenship on an employment form and for possessing guns while in the country illegally.

The unraveling of Roberts’ career began in September when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers tried to detain him. Roberts, a former Olympic runner who was on his way to an elementary school’s field day, fled from the officers. He was eventually arrested, and a gun was found in his district-owned vehicle.

At first, Des Moines residents responded with shock and outrage. Protesters gathered downtown. Students walked out of class. In just over two years in Iowa, Roberts, who is from Guyana, had injected swagger and self-confidence into the Des Moines schools. Many believed ICE must have made some sort of mistake.

But as details emerged, and as the Trump administration drew attention to the case, it became clear that Roberts’ achievements as superintendent had been possible only because he had repeatedly lied about his immigration status and his qualifications. He resigned from the school district. Federal officials outlined how, for years, he had bounced from school system to school system without permission to work in the United States.

As Des Moines’ school year moved on without him, Roberts sat in jail, facing federal felony charges that carried the possibility of a long prison term, as well as near-certain deportation. In January, he pleaded guilty after reaching an agreement with prosecutors.

Prosecutors recommended to Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger that she sentence him to just over three years in prison. They wrote that Roberts had “cultivated a public image grounded in integrity, leadership and authenticity.”

“Yet behind that public image,” the prosecutors wrote, he had “engaged in conduct that undermined those values. Defendant had lawful employment authorization for a mere 18-month period of his career in education.”

In a lengthy court memo that included photos of Roberts engaging students in friendly sprints and celebrating his induction to a college sports hall of fame, Roberts’ lawyers outlined his life story and professional achievements. They asked that he be sentenced to probation and deported.

“He is not violent and will receive the ultimate punishment of banishment from the United States,” the lawyers wrote. “Looking at all his foibles, failures and successes while living in a country he came to love, his successes outweigh his failures.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Mitch Smith/Kathryn Gamble
c. 2026 The New York Times Company