Maryland releases voter registration records of illegal immigrant school chief

A Maryland election board backed down beneath authorized threats from conservative teams and launched unredacted voter registration information belonging to an unlawful immigrant who served as superintendent of Iowa’s largest college system, Fox Information Digital has realized.

The information confirmed that unlawful immigrant Ian Andre Roberts, who’s initially from Guyana, claimed to be a US citizen.

“The information exhibits us what everyone knows: Maryland is just not critical about conserving non-residents off the voter rolls,” Tom Jones, head of the American Accountability Basis (AAF), a conservative analysis group that has advocated for the discharge of the voter registration information, stated in a press launch to Fox Information Digital. “Sadly, there are probably 1000’s of noncitizens nonetheless on Maryland’s voter rolls.”

Prince George’s election board supplied conservative authorized group Restoring Integrity and Belief in Elections (RITE) and AAF with unredacted variations of Ian Andre Roberts’ registration paperwork, after initially releasing closely redacted variations of the paperwork that obscured Roberts’ intercourse, whether or not he checked the citizenship field, his date of delivery and different info.

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

The brand new paperwork, RITE stated in a press launch supplied to Fox Information Digital on Tuesday, present that “Roberts affirmatively claimed U.S. citizenship on his voter registration utility, and Maryland election officers took his phrase for it.” A duplicate of the unredacted paperwork reviewed by Fox Information Digital on Tuesday morning exhibits Roberts checked the “sure” field when requested “Are you a U.S. citizen?”

Roberts, who first entered the U.S. in 1994, was working because the superintendent of the Des Moines Public College District when Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him in September. Roberts was legally barred from working within the nation after a piece allow card expired in 2020, Fox Information Digital beforehand reported.

The arrest of an unlawful immigrant working in such a high-profile college place shocked conservatives and others as extra particulars surrounding his prolonged prison document within the U.S. emerged as journalists and different researchers seemed into his historical past. Throughout an investigation into his previous, it was quickly found that Roberts was listed as a registered Democratic voter in Maryland, the place he beforehand lived.

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

The revelation that Roberts affirmatively verified that he was a U.S. citizen on voter registration paperwork additional opens the door to scrutiny of unlawful immigrants who might vote in elections. RITE pointed to the Maryland Board of Elections beforehand stating that non-citizens are purged from registration information after the “State Board of Elections (SBE) or a neighborhood board receives details about the voter’s citizenship standing, ‘self-reporting’ or a report back to the jury commissioners” as a trigger for concern about Maryland’s present voter purge course of.

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

“This case exhibits precisely why Congress issued the NVRA disclosure mandate,” stated Justin Riemer, CEO and president of RITE, in regards to the launch of the paperwork in December. “When election officers try to cover eligibility information, the general public loses the power to confirm that the regulation is being adopted. As soon as the info was produced, we noticed how weak Maryland’s safeguards actually are. That is sadly all too frequent throughout the nation, and federal legal guidelines do little to stop noncitizens from registering to vote.”

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RITE and AAF filed a request earlier this yr for Roberts’ voter registration paperwork beneath the Nationwide Voter Registration Act — a federal regulation that simplified voter registration processes when an eligible individual renews their driver’s license — and subsequently obtained closely redacted paperwork that didn’t point out how he answered the citizenship query and even his designated gender.

Riemer led the cost by sending a letter to the Prince George’s County Board of Elections in November, demanding that the county flip over the paperwork with fewer redactions as allowed by regulation. The election lawyer, who beforehand served as chief counsel to the Republican Nationwide Committee, gave the county board till Dec. 1, noting that authorized motion could possibly be taken sooner or later if the board of elections didn’t comply.

Riemer joined Fox Information Digital in a Zoom interview in November to debate voter registration information, redactions and Robert’s immigration case, summing it up as “stunning.”

“Once I noticed the information reviews they usually confirmed screenshots of the registration purposes with all this info redacted, I used to be simply shocked,” Riemer stated final month.

“I am an election regulation skilled, not an immigration skilled, however you do not have to be one to see how … damaged the system has been,” Riemer stated. “He has a number of prison fees. He has labored in a number of college districts the place, in the event that they had been doing the right citizenship and work allow checks, this could have been caught. It is actually unbelievable how this man has managed to leap throughout the nation and work at school districts the place he’s round youngsters.”

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RITE took a victory lap in its press launch asserting the unredacted paperwork, stating, “Quite than defend their place in court docket, county officers backed down and produced the unredacted paperwork.”

It’s unclear why ICE brokers performed the early morning visitors cease. (Alex Wong/Getty Photos)

Roberts was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals after his arrest in September and can face fees, DHS stated in October. The federal company launched his lengthy historical past of run-ins with the regulation courting again to 1996, when he was charged with prison possession of narcotics with intent to promote them in New York.

Most lately, he was charged in connection along with his September arrest through which he tried to flee regulation enforcement, in accordance with DHS. He was discovered to be in possession of $3,000 in money, a Glock 9mm pistol and a looking knife on the time of his arrest. Roberts was criminally charged on Oct. 2 with being an unlawful immigrant in possession of firearms, DHS stated.

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Roberts is not employed by the Iowa college system, with the Board of Instructional Examiners revoking Roberts’ license following his arrest in September.

Fox Information Digital reached out to county and state elections officers Tuesday morning for extra touch upon Roberts’ information, the state’s vetting course of for noncitizens on the function of voters and responses to RITE’s press launch, however didn’t instantly obtain responses.