The Department of Homeland Security denied claims that a Los Angeles mother was abducted at gunpoint by bounty hunters and held hostage in a warehouse.
Attorneys and family members of Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon told reporters Monday that the woman had been stalked and ambushed by armed men in two unmarked trucks while driving to work.
The family believed the men to have been bounty hunters, Attorney Stephano Medina said in comments relayed by KTLA.
Calderon managed to make two calls to family members, they said, and described being driven to a border station and turned over to ICE officials, who demanded she sign self-deportation paperwork and leave the country.
When she refused, they locked her in a warehouse “holding men and women together, without a law enforcement employee or official present,” Medina said.
Calderon allegedly said some people had spent months in the warehouse, refusing to self-deport.
DHS called the whole story a hoax.
“This bizarre tale about being picked up by bounty hunters, taken to an unmarked warehouse without access to food, water, or an attorney were clearly fabricated,” the department wrote on X Tuesday.
“This woman was never arrested or ‘kidnapped’ by ICE,’” the statement said, adding that ICE does not work with private bounty hunters.
When asked about DHS’s denial, Calderon’s attorneys admitted told KTLA her name does not appear on the detainee locator, but they said they had lost contact with her, have no idea where she is, and still believe her to be in ICE custody.
Rumors have swirled for months that the agency hires private bounty hunters to help meet DHS Secretary Kristie Noem’s arrest quota, which she upped to 3,000 per day last month.
In February, a masked man claiming to be a bounty hunter took the mic at town hall meeting in Sunnyside, Washington, claiming ICE had contacted his “Tacoma squad” offering “$1,500 to $1,000 per illegal.”
Local officials called his story bogus and said no area bounty hunters were working with ICE, the Tri-City Herald reported.
In California, bounty hunters – or “bond fugitive recovery agents” – are highly regulated and only authorized to apprehend people who violate the terms of their bond agreements, under the direct supervision of a bond company.
Mississippi and Missouri have proposed legislation allowing bounty hunters to assist ICE.
Missouri’s bill – a larger immigration reform package – is still in the legislature, but state Republicans have shown little enthusiasm for its proposed bounty hunter program, according to the Missouri Independent.
Mississippi’s bill died in committee in February.