DOJ Says LA Woman Invented ICE Abduction

A Los Angeles woman is being accused by the federal government of staging her own kidnapping and blaming it on ICE to try to profit off her claims. Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, 41, has been charged with conspiracy and making false statements to federal officials, with a criminal complaint citing a June presser in which attorneys and Calderon's family members insisted that Calderon had been snatched off the streets, per a Justice Department release cited by CBS News. They claimed she'd been taken by "masked men" from the parking lot of an LA Jack in the Box restaurant, and that she was subsequently transported to the border in San Ysidro, per the release.

Officials say that Calderon claimed she was then presented with self-deportation paperwork and was "punished" for not signing it by being taken to a warehouse used for detention. "The press conference garnered media attention and stoked fear in the community," the DOJ release notes. The agency says that while all this was happening, Calderon's daughter set up a GoFundMe for her mom—which had raised just $80 of its $4,500 goal by Thursday, per the Los Angeles Times—but by July 3, the feds were wondering why they couldn't find Calderon in custody anywhere. On July 5, they say they tracked her down in the parking lot of a shopping plaza in Bakersfield, where she was taken into custody. Surveillance video showing Calderon leaving the Jack in the Box parking lot and getting into a nearby sedan, as well as phone records, show Calderon "fabricated the entire story," the DOJ release states.

The agency notes that Calderon also allegedly worked up fake pictures of her rescue, showing the purported abuse she'd suffered in ICE's custody. Homeland Security, meanwhile, is accusing her of setting up the entire scheme "to smear federal law enforcement" and doubling down by calling it a "hoax" online, per KTLA. "The conduct alleged in today's complaint shows this hoax 'kidnapping' was a well-orchestrated conspiracy," says US Attorney Bill Essayli in the DOJ release. "The defendant and all those involved will face the full consequences of their conduct under federal law." If convicted of all charges, Calderon could see a statutory maximum sentence of five years behind bars for the conspiracy charge, and up to five years for false statements. Calderon hasn't yet entered a plea and is expected to appear in court in the coming weeks.