Woman Admits to Staging Fake Kidnapping to Sue Border Patrol

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles announced on Monday that Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderón has pleaded guilty to faking her own kidnapping. The 43-year-old South Los Angeles resident admitted to orchestrating a scheme in June and July of 2025 designed to generate media attention and support a lawsuit against Border Patrol.

Calderón initiated the deception by calling acquaintances with anonymous and blocked phone numbers. On June 25, 2025, she told one individual that immigration officials were taking her into custody near a fast-food restaurant. She claimed agents threatened to break her window during the encounter.

Two days later, Calderón contacted a tenants' rights advocate, falsely stating that authorities had transported her to San Ysidro. She alleged that officials forced her to sign deportation papers that same day. She also told another contact that she was being held in an unknown warehouse with other detainees.

The fabricated narrative reached local media and law enforcement. Reports described masked men in plain clothes driving an unmarked vehicle as the abductors. While Calderón remained hidden in Bakersfield, community organizers demanded her release based on the false accounts.

On July 3, 2025, Calderón contacted an individual to confirm her impending release due to media pressure. That day, she traveled from Bakersfield to Tulare County to stage her return from custody. She approached a witness to document her release and altered her appearance to suggest mistreatment while in federal care. A co-conspirator took photographs of her altered look.

For the following two days, Calderón turned off her phones and ignored calls while law enforcement searched for her. She has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to impede, obstruct, impair, and defeat the lawful function of Homeland Security Investigations.

Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 8, 2027. Calderón faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.