The Iowa Democratic Senate candidate who hired a now-infamous illegal immigrant to be superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools is in a dead heat with her primary opponent, a new poll obtained by The Daily Wire shows.
Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris, who is now running to replace outgoing Iowa Senator Joni Ernst (R), was serving the school district when Ian Andre Roberts of Guyana was hired to lead as its superintendent.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Roberts last week after he received a deportation order from an immigration judge in May 2024 and had weapons charges from Feb. 5, 2020, the agency said.
Credit: YouTube//Des Moines Register
Since then, the school district has faced backlash for its vetting of Roberts when he was hired in 2023.
A recent poll conducted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee found that Norris has 23% popularity, while candidates Zach Wahls has 24.7%, and Josh Turek has 17.6%.
Meanwhile, 74% of the Democratic voters polled supported Norris’ recent call for “radical empathy” following Roberts’ arrest. The poll also revealed that 30% of Democrats believe it’s permissible to harass elected officials and public figures with whom they disagree.
Fifty-seven percent said they support abolishing ICE altogether.
The poll surveyed 579 Democratic primary voters via text-to-web surveys conducted between Sept. 29 and 30, according to the NRSC.
The margin of error is ±4.05% at the 95% confidence level.
Norris claimed Monday that “at no point was any DMPS employee or board member notified that Dr. Roberts was not eligible to work, either by a federal agency or Dr. Roberts.”
Roberts also “stated he was a citizen” on his I-9 employment eligibility form and provided a driver’s license and social security card when he was hired, said Norris.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services also recently revealed to The Daily Wire that Roberts did not undergo an immigration employment verification check through the federal E-Verify system, which ensures workers are in the country legally and eligible to work, before assuming the role.
Credit: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
The Dentons Davis Brown law firm was tasked with reviewing the form and accompanying documents and stated that the information provided “did not raise concerns about his eligibility to work,” Norris said.
Des Moines Public Schools also brought on the firm JG Consulting to recruit possible superintendent candidates in December 2022, the school district said.
The firm used the company Baker-Eubanks to conduct a background check, which “found nothing related to citizenship or immigration matters related to Dr. Roberts,” the district said.
The school district is now suing JG Consulting, saying it failed to properly vet Roberts.
“Dr. Roberts should have never been presented as a potential Superintendent,” Norris said.
“JG Consulting’s contract required them to bring all known information of a positive or negative nature to the Board, and since that did not happen, the Board will pursue aggressive legal action in accordance with the law.”
A spokesman for Baker-Eubanks recently told The Daily Wire that “all publicly available criminal records” were shared with the school district, which “ultimately chose to proceed with the hire despite having received” Roberts’ history.
Roberts subsequently resigned after being placed on unpaid leave and losing his superintendent license.
When he was initially approached by ICE officers, Roberts fled the scene and abandoned his car in the nearby woods, the agency said. They eventually tracked him down and found that he had a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash, and a fixed-blade hunting knife.
Roberts first came to the U.S. in 1999 on a student visa, which has since expired.
