A 24-year-old man was arrested on Monday (19) for allegedly falsifying documents to enroll in a high school in Ohio. According to authorities, he studied for over a year at school before the fraud was discovered.
Anthony Emmanuel Labrador Sierra enrolled in Perrysburg High School in January 2024 with a Venezuelan birth certificate showing that he was 16, claiming that he was a homeless migrant who had been trafficked to the country, according to a Perrysburg Police Division report.
Labrador Sierra began at school and was eventually welcomed by a local family who had already hosted exchange students, according to the police report.
The host family received temporary protection and then permanent from Labrador Sierra in 2024, and helped him obtain a social security number and a driver’s license, police said.
He also used counterfeit documents to obtain the federal temporary protection status (TPS) of US citizenship and immigration service, Perrysburg schools reported in a statement. Migrants under Humanitarian TPS assistance are protected from the country’s deportation or detention based on their immigration status and can get legal employment, according to the USCIS website.
Labrador Sierra’s identity was first questioned on May 14, when a woman contacted the family responsible and said he was actually a 24 -year -old man and father of his son, police said.
She sent several photos to them: a driver’s license and a social security card with the name of Labrador Sierra and the date of birth of March 27, 2001; And several images of Facebook showing her alongside the man, as well as Venezuelan with a child.
Those responsible contacted the school district that night, according to Perrysburg schools.
The administrators met with Labrador Sierra the next day. “He denied the prosecution and stated that the birth certificate presented during enrollment – which indicates that he is currently 17 years old – was accurate,” says the school statement.
THE CNN He contacted a Labrador lawyer Sierra to comment.
“Given the severity of the complaint, Perrysburg schools immediately guided those responsible to keep Labrador out of school property while the matter was investigated deeper,” said the school district.
During the investigation, the district said that “found posts on other people’s social media, including those who claimed to be from the family of Labrador Sierra.” Police said these posts include several of Zulay Sierra, that they believe to be the mother of Labrador Sierra, based on the birth certificate he provided to the school district.
One of the posts she shared shows Labrador Sierra wearing a uniform of the football team Perrysburg with the caption “Happy Birthday, son,” police said. The date was March 27 – the same as the date of birth in the photo of the driver’s license that the woman had sent to the guardians, according to the police report.
Police contacted Customs and US Border Patrol (CBP) and was informed that Labrador Sierra “had a won work visa and that he was considered a citizen who had remained in the country beyond the deadline”, according to the police report.
The CBP told police that the Venezuelan visa had expired in 2023, the year he tried to enroll in high school.
Perrysburg Municipal Police arrested Labrador on Monday during a traffic blitz under a warrant of forgery. He was in the car of the car’s passenger driven by the woman who had revealed her identity to the responsible family, according to the police report.
THE CNN contacted the family’s family and the woman who contacted them to comment.
Labrador Sierra was indicted on Tuesday (20), according to judicial records. He declared himself innocent of the accusation of forgery. His bail was set at $ 50,000, and his next hearing is scheduled for May 29.
According to US border customs and protection, it may also face federal accusations soon.
“Labrador is an illegal foreigner who has exceeded the validity period of the visa and has no legal status. The US border patrol determined it in the custody of immigration with the local police department,” a CBP spokesman said in a statement to CNN . “Federal accusations are being investigated.”
Assistant Secretary of the Department of Internal Security, Tricia McLaughlin, issued a statement confirming that Labrador Sierra is from Venezuela and calling her actions “disturbing”. McLaughlin said the US immigration and customs service, or Ice, also filed an arrest order against him.
The school district classified the situation as “highly uncommon”, but added that “it is confident that the appropriate legal channels were followed to provide support to an individual who presented themselves as a minor unaccompanied.”
This content was originally published in 24 -year -old Venezuelan pretends to be a teenager to study at a US school on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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