A Venezuelan migrant is facing three decades in prison after pleading guilty to posing as a 16-year-old student to attend an Ohio high school.
Anthony Emmanuel Labrador-Sierra, 24, confessed on Monday to using forged documents and buying a firearm in Toledo after he was discovered posing as a teenager to enroll at Perrysburg High School.
Labrador-Sierra, residing in the US since March 2020, had been a student at the school since January 2024 and participated in its junior varsity soccer team alongside freshmen.
He claimed to be homeless, and under federal law schools are required to accept unhoused students, regardless of documentation.
He attended the high school for over a year, joining both the soccer and swim teams while living with a local couple known for hosting exchange students.
Anne Krause, whose son played with Labrador-Sierra on the soccer team, said it was ‘like a movie’ when she found out the 24-year-old was lying.
“It’s just a wild, crazy story,” she mentioned to WTOL 11 in May. “My son said he remembered playing with him. I thought for sure he had to have been mistaken because, you know, it’s already a wild story.”
The mother remembered looking at Labrador-Sierra and thinking he ‘looked stronger than the other boys.’
Anthony Emmanuel Labrador-Sierra, 24, admitted guilt on Monday to using false documents and acquiring a firearm in Toledo after he was caught pretending to be a teenager to enroll at Perrysburg High School.
Labrador-Sierra, residing in the US since March 2020, had been attending the school since January 2024 and even played on its junior varsity soccer team with freshmen.
‘He just looked more built. He looked more like a man,’ she told the outlet.
She said the migrant played with students as young as 14, as the school doesn’t have a freshman team.
Labrador-Sierra’s plot unraveled when a woman contacted the family he was living with on May 14, claiming that he was 24 years old and the father of her child.
She shared several photos, including a driver’s license, Social Security card, and pictures of her with Labrador-Sierra, including one of him with a child.
The guardians contacted the school that evening.
The next day, authorities from the school met with him and ‘he denied the allegation and asserted that the birth certificate submitted during enrollment – which indicates he is currently 17 years old – was accurate.’
While he maintained he was born in 2007 to secure enrollment at the school, authorities have since provided a license indicating he was born on March 27, 2001.
Further investigation revealed a woman believed to be his mother had shared a birthday message on Facebook on March 27, the date of birth on the original license.
He claimed to be homeless, and under federal law schools are required to accept unhoused students, regardless of documentation
The migrant’s plot unraveled when a woman contacted the family he was living with on May 14, claiming Labrador-Sierra was 24 years old. The family he was living with contacted the school that evening and he was arrested in May
Labrador-Sierra was arrested during a traffic stop in the passenger seat of a car driven by the woman who first raised the alarm about his age, police said.
According to the Department of Justice, Labrador-Sierra entered the United States legally in 2019 on a B1/B2 tourist visa but overstayed.
He has been residing in the US illegally since 2020, authorities said.
Labrador-Sierra is accused of lying about having legal immigration status in order to obtain a firearm, and providing a fake date of birth when he applied for Temporary Protected Status and for work documentation in 2024 and 2025.
He was arrested on May 19 with a handgun, prosecutors said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials ordered his detention.
Labrador-Sierra now faces up to 30 years in prison. He will be sentenced in late January.
Daily Mail has reached out to the school for comment.
