Jonathan Nicola, the reportedly 29 year old high school basketball player in Canada who was posing as a 17 year old, claims he doesn’t know his real age, date of birth or anything of the such. He is currently still being held by Canadian authorities.
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During his testimony before an immigration and refugee board on April 19th, Nicola explained why he doesn’t know his real age.
“I do not know, I really do not know what is my real age, I cannot tell you what my real age is,” Nicola said, according to a transcript provided to the CBC. “My mom always [kept] telling us different [ages]. I do not remember what specific age.
“I always keep asking what is the specific age that I was born, and she has told me that she could not remember.”
Nicola started attending Catholic Central High School in Windsor, Ontario earlier this year after arriving from South Sudan. He got into Canada with no problem but when he applied for a visitor visa to get into the United States, a red flag popped up.
According to the Canada Border Services Agency, he listed his birth date as November 1998 on his passport and visa applications. But when he applied for a U.S. visitor visa in April, “his fingerprints matched an individual who had already applied for a U.S. visa in 2007 with a birth date of November 1986,” the CBC reports. U.S. officials refused to allow Nicola into the country and alerted their Canadian counterparts, who took him into custody on April 15.
Boys basketball coach, Peter Cusumano, claimed he knew something was up as soon as Nicola arrived. “Everybody had their suspicions,” Cusumano said, per the CBC. “But he had all the right answers. He came in with a lot more documentation than a lot of other kids arrive with.”
Nicola will be held until at least May 24th because he is considered a flight risk and authorities are trying to determine if his motives for coming to Canada and then trying to get into the U.S. were more sinister than he says. He claims he came to Canada to help his mother, who is sick and he wanted to get an education to eventually go back home and help her and the rest of his family.
