Ohio High Schooler Was Actually 24-Year-Old Man Who Overstayed Visa: Police

A 24-year-old Venezuelan man is accused of fraudulently enrolling himself in an Ohio high school as a 16-year-old, which allowed him to stay in the U.S. undetected for over a year until a woman came forward last week, contending that he is the father of her child.

Anthony Emmanuel Labrador Sierra was arrested near Toledo on forgery charges Monday and also faces a detainer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement after allegedly overstaying a work visa that expired in 2023, local and federal authorities said.

According to police records, Labrador Sierra enrolled himself in Perrysburg High School in late 2023 using a fake birth certificate that listed him as born in Venezuela as Anthony Labrador on Dec. 2, 2007.

He allegedly told school officials that he was unhoused and trafficked into the U.S. Under the federal McKinney-Vento Act, passed in 1987, public schools are required to enroll unaccompanied minors without standard enrollment paperwork.

He was taken in by a local couple, known for adopting and housing exchange students, who helped him legally obtain an Ohio driver’s license and a Social Security card, according to a Perrysburg Police Division incident report obtained by HuffPost.

Over the next 16 months, Labrador Sierra attended classes and participated in extracurricular activities, including junior varsity soccer and swimming. He also obtained Temporary Protective Status through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services using a fraudulent birth certificate, Perrysburg Schools said in a statement.

“Our school district—along with state and federal agencies—were misled by an intentional act of fraud,” the school system said.

It wasn’t until last week, May 14, that a 22-year-old Toledo woman came forward, identifying Labrador Sierra to his local guardians as a 24-year-old man and the father of her child, police said.

The woman allegedly shared a photo of an Ohio driver’s license and Social Security card showing Labrador Sierra’s full name and a birthday of March 27, 2001. She also shared photos from Facebook showing her with him and a small child.

Labrador Sierra’s guardians immediately alerted his school about the fraud allegations, and the next day, school officials said they confronted him about them. He denied the allegations but was still directed to stay off school property until a district review, the school system said.

Later, police said the school system provided authorities with pictures of several Facebook posts by a woman who identified herself as Labrador Sierra’s mother. The woman on March 27 posted a photo of him wearing a Perrysburg soccer uniform and wished him a happy birthday.

Further investigation found that a vehicle Labrador Sierra owned was registered to Anthony Emmanuel Labrador Sierra under his old Ohio driver’s license. Border Patrol accused that same individual of overstaying his work visa in 2023, the same year that he enrolled in the local high school, police said.

He was taken into custody during a traffic stop on Monday.

Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, celebrated Labrador Sierra’s arrest and detainer in a statement, claiming he is “no longer able to prey on the students of Perrysburg High School.”

A police spokesperson told HuffPost on Thursday that the incident remains under investigation. It was not immediately clear whether Labrador Sierra had an attorney.