LOS ANGELES — Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, 42, of South Los Angeles has agreed to plead guilty in Los Angeles federal court to a single count of conspiracy over a staged claim that immigration officers kidnapped her — a story prosecutors say was invented to win public sympathy and solicit donations. She was expected to enter the plea on Monday, October 26.
Source: MyNewsLA
The claim first aired in June 2025, when Calderon's attorney told assembled media that she had been seized days earlier at a Jack in the Box restaurant parking lot in downtown Los Angeles, taken to San Ysidro and presented to an ICE staffer with voluntary self-deportation paperwork. The attorney said that when Calderon refused to sign and demanded a judge and a lawyer, she was punished and held in a warehouse where she was abused. Her daughter then set up a GoFundMe page requesting $4,500, stating that Calderon "was taken by masked men in an unmarked vehicle … when she was on her way to work."
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the entire story was false and designed to generate sympathy and solicit donations. On July 3, 2025, while Calderon was still purportedly missing, federal agents confirmed she was not in immigration custody and searched for her over the July 4 holiday weekend. Two days later, agents tracked her down in a shopping plaza parking lot in Bakersfield, where, prosecutors said, she continued to claim she had been taken by masked men. Surveillance video — including images of Calderon leaving the Jack in the Box parking lot and getting into a nearby sedan — and telephone records bolstered investigators' conclusion that the story was fabricated, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Prosecutors said Calderon also created fabricated photos of her "rescue," made to look as if she had been abused while in federal immigration custody, and planned to hold a press conference on July 6, 2025, to increase donations to the GoFundMe page and obtain other benefits. The Department of Homeland Security said Calderon "was never arrested or kidnapped by ICE or bounty hunters." First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California said at the time of the complaint that the conduct alleged showed the hoax kidnapping was "a well-orchestrated conspiracy."
The plea was also summarised on Monday by WiseVoter's Bakersfield report, which carried the same conspiracy plea, the same five-year maximum and the same co-defendant details. If her plea is accepted, Calderon could face up to five years in federal prison at sentencing, prosecutors said. A co-defendant, Yvette Estrada, has pleaded guilty to a federal charge and is expected to be sentenced on November 30. Calderon's attorney could not immediately be reached for comment, MyNewsLA reported.
Source: WiseVoter