This adult man was living the illegal-immigrant dream: He created a whole new identity, got to experience the thrills of high school in America for over a year, and now he's been arrested by ICE.
The most amazing part of this whole story?
Labrador tried out for the soccer team and only ended up making JV!
Now, to be fair, if I were an illegal immigrant from Venezuela posing as a 16-year-old high school student, I too would go about 75% in soccer tryouts. You don't wanna get found out.
Trans athletes, you could learn something from this guy!
Let's look at the story here:
To the residents of Perrysburg, Ohio, his school pals and the guardians who welcomed him in, Anthony Emmanuel Labrador-Sierra was a 16-year-old human trafficking victim.
There was one problem.
He was really 24 years old and had a baby with his ex-fiancée a town over in Toledo.
His scheme worked for over a year, with authorities falling for a birth certificate he produced shaving six years [sic] off his age.
Dude even had new guardians, Kathy and Brad Mefferd -- a couple in their 60s.
Then one night Kathy and Brad received a call from Anthony's baby momma, 22-year-old Evelyn Camacho, and Labrador's illegal-immigrant dream began to crumble.
The Mefferds called the school, which in turn called the police. They also searched his room and made unsettling discoveries including a burner cellphone, fake ID, a semiautomatic pistol and three loaded 9mm magazines, according to an arrest affidavit.
Labrador has since been handed over to ICE and faces decades in prison. He had entered the country as a teenager in 2019.
Now for the most terrifying part of the story:
A statement from Perrysburg Schools read in part, 'We've reviewed our enrollment process and confirmed we followed federal law.
'Schools are required to immediately enroll unaccompanied minors without requiring standard enrollment paperwork. While we were not required to, the school district did also obtain a birth certificate.'
Labrador called Perrysburg Schools in November of 2023 claiming to be "homeless … an immigrant from Venezuela … and the victim of human trafficking." Perrysburg Schools took his story at face value.
On January 13, 2024, he met with school officials and produced a birth certificate that appeared to show him born on December 2, 2007. It is unclear what country issued that birth certificate.
He moved in with the Mefferds, parents of four children, on March 24 and they were granted permanent guardianship in November 2024.
Labrador had "blatant" tattoos, but still was able to pass as a 16-year-old. What's more, he even attended a dinner at a parent's home with all the other soccer players.
Welp, Labrador will now be playing soccer in the prison yard.
Since his arrest, he has pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm by an alien, making false statements during the purchasing of a firearm, and two counts of making false statements on immigration forms.
He is set to be sentenced in January.
P.S. Now check out our latest video, featuring Kirk Cameron 👇
