A Mexican woman living in the U.S. illegally has admitted she faked her own “kidnapping” by immigration agents in 2025, a hoax prosecutors say she ran to win public sympathy and donations.
Story Snapshot
- Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderón, 43, of South Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge.
- Prosecutors say she lied about being grabbed by federal agents in June 2025 while she hid in Bakersfield.
- Her false story drove news reports, a GoFundMe page and a press conference demanding her “release.”
- She faces up to five years in federal prison.
- Sentencing is set for February 8, 2027.
- Prosecutors say she was also building a lawsuit against Border Patrol: she staged her own “release,” asked a stranger to be a witness, and had a helper photograph her made up to look mistreated.
The Guilty Plea
Pelaez Calderón pleaded guilty in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday, October 26, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office there. She admitted to one count of conspiracy to impede and obstruct Homeland Security Investigations, known as HSI, the branch of the Department of Homeland Security that investigates crimes such as smuggling and fraud. Prosecutors say she faked her arrest to stir public outrage and to build a lawsuit against Border Patrol.
The plea is a turnaround. When she was charged in July 2025, she kept insisting she had been kidnapped, and in September 2025 she pleaded not guilty. U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson will sentence her.
How the Hoax Worked
Prosecutors laid out the timeline. On June 25, 2025, she told a person that “immigration” was taking her near a fast-food restaurant, a Jack in the Box parking lot in downtown Los Angeles, and that agents had threatened to break her window. Surveillance video and phone records later showed her leaving that lot and getting into a nearby car, prosecutors say.
On June 27, using blocked calls, she told a tenants’ rights advocate that authorities had taken her to San Ysidro, near the Mexican border, and pressured her to sign deportation papers. The same day she told another person she was being held in an unknown warehouse with other detainees. Because of her lies, false reports spread that masked men in plain clothes, driving an unmarked vehicle, had grabbed her on behalf of federal agents.
Her daughter started a GoFundMe page asking for $4,500, saying her mother was taken “by masked men in an unmarked vehicle.” On June 30, community organizers and a family attorney held a press conference in Los Angeles repeating her story and demanding her release. All the while, she stayed hidden in Bakersfield and knew about the coverage, prosecutors say.
On July 3, she claimed she would soon be released because of the media attention. That day she traveled to Tulare County to stage her “release.” She told a resident there that “Border Patrol” had dropped her off and asked the person to act as a witness for a lawsuit she planned against the agency. A co-conspirator photographed her with her appearance changed to look as if she had been mistreated. For two days she turned off her phones and ignored calls from law enforcement. HSI agents found her in Bakersfield on July 5.
What Officials Said
When the charges were announced in July 2025, Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, said, “Dangerous rhetoric that ICE agents are ‘kidnapping’ illegal immigrants is being recklessly peddled by politicians.” Eddy Wang, who leads HSI in Los Angeles, said, “Diverting critical law enforcement resources is not only reckless and irresponsible, but it also endangers the community.”
In the plea announcement, officials said that “as a result of Calderón’s intentional lies, false information was reported to the media and law enforcement.” Agents spent days searching for a woman who had never been taken.
