A Mexican national is facing federal charges for concocting a hoax “kidnapping” story which Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and legacy media peddled as true.
Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, 41, of South Los Angeles, has been charged with conspiracy and making false statements to federal officers.
Calderon, who is in the country illegally, reportedly made up the entire story to gain media attention and sympathy. In late June, she claimed that two armed bounty hunters abducted her at gunpoint at a Jack in the Box restaurant parking lot in downtown Los Angeles.
U.S. attorneys with the Central District of California filed a federal criminal complaint against Calderon last week. The elaborate lie was to scam people through a GoFundMe campaign and smear federal law enforcement.
According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Calderon is accused of “orchestrating a phony kidnapping — which she blamed on federal agents or people working with federal agents — to generate public sympathy and solicit donations.”
On June 30, her family and an attorney representing them then held a press conference about the so-called “abduction,” and said the men had taken her to San Ysidro, where an ICE staffer tried to get her to self-deport.
The Department of Homeland Security launched a probe into the mother’s claims — including having ICE agents go searching “detention cell to detention cell,” authorities said, which led to her eventual arrest.
“Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon was never arrested or kidnapped by ICE or bounty hunters — this criminal illegal alien scammed innocent Americans for money and diverted limited DHS resources from removing the worst of the worst from Los Angeles communities,” DHS said in a news release.
Homeland Security Investigations launched a search for Calderon over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. They located her in a shopping plaza parking lot in Bakersfield on July 5. She allegedly continued to claim she was “taken by masked men and held in custody with others,” according to the criminal complaint.
Even worse, Bass, immigration activists and other news outlets spread the phony story to incite more fear and false narratives about U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents. Bass pushed the alleged hoax in a newly resurfaced social media post, The New York Post reported.
Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” also poked fun at Bass and activists holding up signs and rallying around the scam artist, saying “Democrats created this narrative that ICE is the gestapo, that ICE is evil and that they’re kidnapping and disappearing people and they wanted an example. So, that’s why Mayor Bass on July 1 leaned in, put her picture up and tweeted this:
“She’s a mother from LA — taken out of her car on her way to work, and then held in a warehouse as officers hoped she would ‘self-deport.’ No hearing. Just fear. This doesn’t make anyone safer,” Bass posted on X on July 1.
DHS responded with its own post on X: “Mayor, you pushed a HOAX. There is still time to delete this. Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon was NEVER arrested or kidnapped by ICE or bounty hunters—this criminal illegal alien scammed innocent Americans for money and diverted limited DHS resources from Los Angeles.”
Mayor, you pushed a HOAX. There is still time to delete this.
Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon was NEVER arrested or kidnapped by ICE or bounty hunters—this criminal illegal alien scammed innocent Americans for money and diverted limited DHS resources from Los Angeles. https://t.co/hXPwQBDRFO pic.twitter.com/WpMpLHYsS6
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 18, 2025
United States Attorney Bill Essayli said that politicians and media reports continue to peddle dangerous rhetoric that ICE agents are “kidnapping” illegal immigrants to inflame the public and demonize federal agents.
“The conduct alleged in today’s complaint shows this hoax ‘kidnapping’ was a well-orchestrated conspiracy,” Essayli said. “The defendant and all those involved will face the full consequences of their conduct under federal law.”
Calderon was arrested and is now U.S. immigration custody. She is expected to make her initial appearance in the coming weeks in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.
FAKE NEWS🧵
Politicians and media outlets ran with the made-up story of an illegal alien, Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, being "kidnapped" by federal agents and held hostage.
Turns out, her entire story was a lie meant to scam Americans out of their money. pic.twitter.com/2PSxvJDYoc
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) July 18, 2025
According to an affidavit, the Calderon family’s attorney held a press conference on June 30 to announce that Calderon had reportedly been kidnapped five days earlier outside of a Jack in the Box restaurant.
The attorney alleged she was brought to San Ysidro, where “she was presented to [a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] staffer” and “presented with voluntary self-deportation paperwork.”
Calderon refused to sign the paperwork and demanded to speak to a judge and a lawyer, according to the attorney. In response, “she was punished” and was sent to a warehouse in an undisclosed location.
Meanwhile, Calderon’s daughter set up a GoFundMe page, hoping to raise $4,500. She said that Calderon “was taken by masked men in an unmarked vehicle…when she was on her way to work.” According to the complaint, the entire story was fabricated.
Surveillance footage, however, showed Calderon leaving the Jack in the Box parking lot and getting into a sedan, The New York Post reported. Phone records also indicated the story was a hoax, according to prosecutors.
The press conference garnered media attention, increasing fear and outrage among the immigrant community and protestors. The legacy media also ran with the false story.
“Politicians and activist media peddled these smears that were designed to demonize law enforcement and evade accountability,” according to a DHS statement. “Calderon will now face justice and the media and politicians who swallowed and pushed this garbage should be embarrassed.”
