House Republicans probe Maryland voter rolls after illegal immigrant case

EXCLUSIVE: Maryland’s voter rolls are coming underneath Republican management of the Home of Representatives after it was found that an unlawful immigrant serving as superintendent of a big Iowa faculty system was fraudulently registered to vote in Maryland, Fox Information Digital discovered.

Home Committee on Home Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wisc., and Vice Chairman Laurel Lee, R-Fla., despatched a letter Thursday to Jared DeMarinis, administrator of the Maryland State Board of Elections, demanding solutions about Ian Andre Roberts’ registration to vote within the state regardless of not having U.S. citizenship. The Home Administration Committee oversees the actions and oversight of the Home and can be charged with contemplating proposals to alter the federal election legislation.

Roberts’ voter registration paperwork have come underneath intense scrutiny by conservatives, together with when a Maryland election board launched redacted variations of the recordsdata in November, displaying how Roberts answered the citizenship query.

“The fee is worried concerning the integrity and accuracy of Maryland’s citizenship verification processes, and subsequently the state’s voter rolls. To assist the fee’s oversight of this matter, we request that you just present the next data as quickly as attainable,” learn the letter, which requested the elections chief 10 questions concerning the voter roll vetting course of and the prevalence of unlawful immigrants on the voter rolls.

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Former Des Moines, Iowa, Chief Inspector Ian Andre Roberts, who was detained by ICE and charged federally. (Polk County Sheriff)

Pressed for particulars, the committee asks, “Is Roberts nonetheless a registered voter in Maryland?” “Has Mr. Roberts ever voted in Maryland? If that’s the case, what election(s) did he take part in?;” “Has Mr. Roberts ever acquired an absentee poll within the mail? If that’s the case, for which election(s)?’ and “How does the State Board of Elections meet its obligations underneath 52 USC §20507 to implement a normal program to take away ineligible voters from the rolls?”

Maryland is a Democratic state, with the celebration controlling the places of work of the governor, secretary of state, lawyer normal and each chambers of the state legislature.

Roberts labored at Baltimore Metropolis Faculties between August 2001 and June 2010, together with as a instructor, principal and principal at varied factors in his profession in Maryland, native media beforehand reported.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Roberts, who’s initially from Guyana, in September. Roberts was working as a superintendent of the general public faculty system in Des Moines, Iowa on the time of his arrest, sparking widespread curiosity and concern that an unlawful immigrant discovered himself in such a high-profile place regardless of his employment authorization card expiring in 2020.

The arrest opened the floodgates for investigations into Roberts’ previous, together with uncovering a prolonged legal historical past within the US relationship again to 1996, when he was charged with legal possession of narcotics with intent to promote them in New York.

It was additionally found that Roberts was a registered voter in Maryland. It’s unlawful for non-citizens to vote in federal or state elections.

Maryland, together with 5 different states, was moreover hit earlier in December by a lawsuit filed by the Justice Division’s Civil Rights Division for “failing to supply their statewide voter registration lists upon request,” in response to the DOJ.

“The Division of Justice’s lawsuit in opposition to the Maryland Board of Elections is a stark reminder of the deep-seated issues plaguing our voter registration system,” Republican state Rep. Matt Morgan, chairman of the Maryland Freedom Caucus, stated of Maryland’s voter rolls to Fox Digital.

“For years we now have heard dismissals that non-citizen voting ‘by no means occurs,’ however Ian Andra Roberts’ story is irrefutable proof on the contrary. These revelations spotlight severe flaws that undermine public belief and the integrity of our elections. The Maryland Freedom Caucus helps the DOJ’s efforts to guard our democracy by making certain that solely residents vote,” he continued.

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The Roberts saga intensified in November after the American Accountability Basis filed a public information request to acquire Roberts’ voter registration paperwork. The Board of Elections in Prince George, Maryland, returned closely redacted paperwork that blacked out Roberts’ intercourse, whether or not he had checked the citizenship field, his date of beginning and different data.

A vote right here is an indication forward of the 2025 election cycle. (Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs)

The conservative authorized group Restoring Integrity and Belief in Elections (RITE) quickly afterward despatched the board a warning letter to supply unredacted variations of the paperwork or face attainable lawsuits. The county complied in December, revealing that Roberts had fraudulently declared on the paperwork that he was a U.S. citizen.

“When election officers try to cover eligibility information, the general public loses the power to confirm compliance with the legislation,” Justin Riemer, CEO and president of Restoring Integrity and Belief in Elections, stated in a December press launch concerning the unredacted model of the recordsdata. “As soon as the info was produced, we noticed how weak safeguards in Maryland actually are. That is sadly all too widespread throughout the nation, and federal legal guidelines do little to stop non-residents from registering to vote.”

The Maryland State Board of Elections beforehand stated Roberts didn’t vote in elections.

“Information launched by the Maryland State Board of Elections affirm {that a} non-citizen has efficiently registered to vote in Maryland not less than twice,” Steil and Lee continued within the letter. “The state of affairs raises ongoing issues that states are usually not verifying the citizenship of registrants. Oversight of federal elections is essential to tell potential legislative reforms and make sure the integrity of federal elections. The committee is subsequently requesting data from the Maryland State Board of Elections.”

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The letter additionally criticized the heavy redactions of Roberts’ paperwork once they have been initially launched.

“Mr. Roberts repeatedly claimed U.S. citizenship and remained a registered voter in Maryland for years, regardless of leaving the state greater than a decade in the past,” they wrote. “The American Accountability Basis has filed a public information request for Mr. Roberts’ voter registration utility. The unique launch of the paperwork contained heavy, deliberate redactions, together with Mr. Roberts’ response to the citizenship query. The following launch of Mr. Roberts’ utility continues to redact essential data, such because the supply of his voter registration utility.”

Wisconsin Republican Rep. Bryan Steil is main the cost in demanding solutions from the Maryland Board of Elections about unlawful immigrants in voter rolls. (Greg Nash/Pool by way of Reuters)

The committee leaders argued that the “recurring redactions counsel that Maryland is both inadvertently concealing an unlawful alien’s voter registration or withholding details about an incapacity to confirm citizenship.”

The county elections board advised Fox Information Digital on Wednesday that “the Prince George’s County Board of Elections complies with all authorized and statutory necessities underneath federal and state election legal guidelines, in addition to the processes and necessities set forth within the Maryland Code of Rules (COMAR.).”

“After assessment of the (Maryland Public Data Act) request by authorized counsel, and after session with the Maryland State Board of Elections, considering the NVRA statutory legal guidelines and the accompanying reported federal circumstances addressing the topic of voter data disclosure from the Board of Elections, it was decided that among the data in query relating to Mr. Robers couldn’t be redacted. The state of affairs relating to the beforehand redacted data was instantly remedied,” Elections Administrator Wendy Honesty-Bey stated in an e mail to Fox NewsDigital.

Republicans say the registration of unlawful immigrant Ian Andre Roberts in Maryland raises severe issues concerning the state’s voting processes. (Keith Srakocic/AP Photograph and ICE)

Roberts was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshall and can face costs, the Division of Homeland Safety stated in October.

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Roberts’ arrest itself was additionally mired in controversy. In keeping with the Division of Homeland Safety, he tried to flee legislation enforcement officers and was discovered to be in possession of $3,000 in money, a Glock 9mm pistol and a searching knife on the time of his arrest.

Roberts was criminally charged on Oct. 2 with being an unlawful alien in possession of firearms, in response to the Division of Homeland Safety.

The cost is his newest in a protracted legal file relationship again to 1996.

Roberts first arrived within the U.S. in 1994, in response to the Division of Homeland Safety, and confronted a 1998 cost of third-degree unauthorized use of a car in Queens, New York, which was later dropped, a 2012 conviction for reckless driving in Maryland, second-degree legal possession of a weapon and different weapons possession in 2020, and a 2022 conviction for illegal possession of a loaded firearm in Pennsylvania.

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The Iowa The Board of Academic Examiners revoked Roberts’ instructing license after his arrest, and he’s not allowed to function a superintendent within the state. The district is now suing the chief search agency that helped rent Roberts for breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and normal negligence and can be looking for financial damages, Fox Digital beforehand reported.

Fox Information Digital reached out to Roberts’ lawyer for any updates on the case.

“We’re at present reviewing all allegations to find out their veracity,” Brandon Brown, an lawyer for Roberts, advised Axios in October.