A woman living unlawfully in the United States has been charged with staging her own kidnapping in a scheme that federal authorities say was designed to attract public sympathy and collect donations.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, 41, was charged with conspiracy and making false statements after investigators concluded she falsely claimed to have been abducted by men posing as immigration officers.
Calderon, a Mexican national residing in South Los Angeles, had previously been allowed to stay in the U.S. under a law enforcement parole that expired in 2023. She was taken into federal custody on July 5.
On June 25, Calderon’s family and attorneys held a news conference asserting that she had been forcibly taken from a Jack in the Box parking lot by masked, unidentified men who allegedly drove her to the U.S.-Mexico border. An attorney named Stephano Medina claimed she was pressured to sign self-deportation documents and, when she refused, was held in a warehouse until she complied.
In the days following the alleged incident, Calderon’s daughter launched a GoFundMe campaign seeking $4,500 to support efforts to locate her, claiming Calderon had been kidnapped by unidentified men.
These claims were reported by local media and circulated widely online, prompting the Los Angeles Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to initiate a joint investigation.
Federal investigators now say the kidnapping never happened. According to an affidavit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, surveillance video showed Calderon walking calmly to a silver Nissan sedan and entering the vehicle without any signs of distress. No evidence supported the claim that she had been forced into the car.
Furthermore, phone records showed that calls made to family members — which were claimed to have come from borrowed phones — were actually made using Calderon’s own cell phone, with the caller ID masked to appear anonymous.
Photographs allegedly showing her in custody were also deemed suspicious. An HSI investigator concluded that the images appeared to have been staged to mislead authorities into believing she had been mistreated.
On July 5, agents located Calderon in a Bakersfield shopping plaza. Despite being confronted with the surveillance footage and phone records, she continued to maintain that she had been abducted.
Calderon now faces up to 10 years in federal prison — five years for conspiracy and another five for making false statements to federal officers.
Law enforcement officials criticized the alleged hoax, stating that the case diverted significant resources away from ongoing investigations into serious crimes.
“Diverting critical law enforcement resources is not only reckless and irresponsible — it also affects our ability to pursue cases involving drug trafficking, child exploitation, and human smuggling,” said Eddy Wang, Special Agent in Charge of HSI Los Angeles.
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli also commented on the broader impact of such incidents.
“False claims of abduction involving federal law enforcement create public confusion and mistrust. Our agents act professionally and within the scope of the law, and hoaxes like this undermine legitimate public discourse around immigration enforcement,” he said.
Following the announcement of charges, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson issued a statement criticizing how the story was initially covered.
“Media outlets that amplified this story without verifying the facts contributed to public misunderstanding. This case underscores the need for accurate reporting and careful scrutiny of serious allegations,” Jackson said.
Calderon remains in federal custody pending further legal proceedings.
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Any bets that the anti-ICE crowd will claim she was ‘justified’ since all of the ‘real’ kidnappings by CE go unreported, or some such nonsense.