The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: How an Illegal Alien Cheated the System to the Top—Until ICE Caught Him

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Ian Roberts, the superintendent of Des Moines, Iowa, boasted an impressive résumé—complete with a supposed doctor of education degree. But what truly stood out was how Roberts managed to advance his career on a résumé filled with false information. What was real, however, was his record: He was living in the U.S. illegally, had an active deportation order, and had a prior weapons charge. How did a man with fake degrees, false citizenship claims, and a criminal record end up leading an entire school district? Victor Davis Hanson says the answer lies in the dangers of DEI on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “ Why would a sophisticated city and a sophisticated school district hire someone without specifying his citizen status or his degrees? And the answer was: He was a diversity, equity, and inclusion candidate. He was a charismatic, apparently, they thought, black American. This was mostly a white city. It had large minority population. They felt it would be a goodwill gesture to hire the first African American—although he was not an African American, he was a citizen of a foreign country. And he was here illegally. But nevertheless, they thought that would be reflecting on their goodwill, their sensitivity, their liberality. “ 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1    👉If you can’t get enough of Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal, subscribe to his official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273    👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com  (0:00) The Firing of Ian Roberts (0:57) Uncovering the Lies
 (4:24) The Role of DEI in Hiring Decisions
 (6:01) The Dangers of DEI
 (8:06) Conclusion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ian Roberts, who is an African-American resident alien, we'll get to that in a minute, was recently fired because of an ICE detention order and they came and arrested him. It was found out that he is here illegally. He had a prior weapons charge. And it was also discovered that he is not a doctor of education as his resume and as the school board thought. They can't figure out exactly how many degrees he actually obtained. He never had a doctor. He lied about a prior arrest for a gun violation. He lied about his citizen status. So you basically disqualified dozens of people because they didn't have the right race or they didn't have the right ethnic background.

That is the dangers of DEI. This is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal. Normally America does not care when a superintendent of public construction or a school district is fired, even in a big city like Des Moines, Iowa. But now we do. And why? For a variety of reasons, Ian Roberts, who is an African-American resident alien, we'll get to that in a minute from Guyana, was recently fired. And he was fired because of an ICE detention order. And they came and arrested him.

He fled. This is the superintendent of schools, remember. He fled ICE agents on, and they chased him, and he was apprehended, arrested. It was found out, A, that he is here illegally. He is an illegal alien. He never obtained either citizenship nor legal residence. And he had an existing deportation order out on him, which ICE was trying to finalize when they arrested him. He had a prior weapons charge, and it was also discovered in the investigation to deport him that he is not a doctor of education as his resume and as the school board thought when they hired him.

And more importantly, they can't figure out exactly how many units in which particular degrees he actually obtained because he's mentioned five or six different universities of various statuses. So it's kind of a mess. When he was arrested, he was found with $3,000 in cash. I don't know when his superintendent of schools carries $3,000 in his wallet. And he also had a loaded block gun. Put all that together, and it's mystifying that he became a cause-selep. So that when he was detained and therefore immediately put on suspension and he has resigned before he was fired, there was a mass protest to retain him. And the chairman of the school board, Jackie Norris, who's now a candidate in the Democratic upcoming primaries to replace incumbent Republican Senator Ernest, tried to use this as a political

ploy when she said, you know, this is a basically her subtext was, this is a typical. ice overreach. And we and people, we people of Iowa and especially liberal Des Moines will not stand for it. So we need radical, that was a weird word, radical empathy for Dr. Ian Roberts. Of course, he wasn't a doctor. And then all of what I just told you started to trickle in and she backed off. And now the school board says, well, we were deceived. We were deceived. We didn't know. They hired a head hunting firm to find him. And apparently he had taught. at four or five other places, most of which are mum about his record there, but there was plenty of evidence, had anybody wanted to look for, that he never had a doctorate, that he lied about his citizen status. He lied about a prior arrest for a gun violation, and he was, as I said, here illegally. So the question then is, why would a sophisticated city and a sophisticated school district hire someone who, without specifying his citizen status or his degrees. And the answer was, he was a diversity, equity, and inclusion candidate. He was a charismatic, apparently they thought black

American, and this was mostly a white city. It had large minority population. They felt it would be a goodwill gesture to hire the first African American, although he was not a white city. He was a an African American. He was a citizen of a foreign country, and he was here illegally. But nevertheless, they thought that would be reflecting on their goodwill, their sensitivity, their liberality. But they didn't seem to be worried about whether he was qualified, because all you have to do, and I'm speaking to someone who has been an academic, who's been an academia for 50 years and probably, I don't know, run 20 searches. When an applicant applies. for a teaching job or administrative job, and I think I've been on three or four administrative searches,

the suspicion is always there. When you see these resumes, you always ask yourself, I have to check the resume. I've got to call the institution and make sure they have a degree. I've got to call the recommender to make sure that this, he really exists. They apparently didn't do many of that at all. And why we're getting back to a theme we've talked about a lot of times, and that is the dangers of DEI. And what are the dangers? They're a danger of omission and commission. Comission means that you do not use meritocratic standards for particular people of a particular gender or sexual persuasion or racial background or religious background. You exempt them in a way that you would not for other people. And therefore, when you exempt them and they know that you're exempting them, they take advantage of that.

as Mr. Roberts did. I can't say Dr. Roberts. He's not a doctor. And then there is the sin always of DEI of omission. When you hired Dr. Roberts's quote unquote doctor, you passed over a lot of qualified people who probably did have doctorates, who probably did get legitimate degrees from good universities, who probably did have universities that would be willing to school districts, universities willing to contact you and vouch for the resident. But you weren't interested in that. So you basically disqualified dozens of people because they didn't have the right race or they didn't have the right ethnic background and they didn't therefore fit your definition of what the school board president, Ms. Norris, who was a former staffer to Michelle Obama called radical empathy.

She doesn't have radical empathy now once she learned the story and got embarrassed and sees that it's going to damage her senatorial prospects. But until the full story came out, this was a Luigi Mangione and Obrigo Garcia, not in the same magnitude, but it was the same sort of profile. We suspend all normal meritocratic evaluations because of someone's ideology or someone's superficial appearance are. ethnic or racial background. It's a very dangerous thing to suspend meritocracy for those reasons. Thank you very much. It's Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.