Fake Abduction: California Woman Guilty of Staging Border Patrol Kidnapping

Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderón pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of conspiracy to impede the lawful function of Homeland Security Investigations. The 43-year-old woman from South Los Angeles admitted to fabricating her own disappearance in the summer of 2025 to create a legal case against Border Patrol.

The scheme began in June 2025, according to the Office of First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bilal A. Essayli for the Central District of California. Calderón used anonymous phone calls and blocked caller IDs to tell friends and advocates that federal agents had seized her. She claimed officials took her into custody near a fast-food restaurant and threatened to break her vehicle's window. Two days later, she called a tenants' rights advocate from Bakersfield, stating that authorities had forced her to sign deportation papers at San Ysidro.

Officials said Calderón told a separate contact that she was being held in an unknown warehouse with other detainees. She then hid in Bakersfield while her lies spread to media outlets and law enforcement. The false narrative described masked men in unmarked vehicles acting as federal surrogates. Community organizers demanded her release based on these accounts.

On July 3, 2025, Calderón called another individual to claim that media attention would soon force her release. She traveled from Bakersfield to Tulare County that day to stage her return. Calderón altered her appearance to show signs of mistreatment, and a co-conspirator took photographs of the changes. She approached an individual in Tulare County to serve as a witness to her story.

For two days following the staged release, Calderón turned off her phones and avoided calls from investigators. Her actions were part of a plan to stir public outrage and support a lawsuit against Border Patrol. Court documents note that her false claims resulted in incorrect information being reported to authorities and the public.

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