She became the avatar of everything wrong with President Donald Trump's ICE raids in California. It was her claims that Democrats, such as Mayor Karen Bass and Congressional representatives like AOC, Pramila Jayapal, Eric Swalwell, and the rest, relied on when they accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents of "kidnapping" illegal aliens off the street and sending them to "concentration" or "internment camps."
After all, there was a news conference. Protesters. She had a lawyer. Her daughter wept over her. She absolutely was "kidnapped ... at a Jack in the Box restaurant parking lot in downtown Los Angeles and brought to San Ysidro, where 'she was presented to [a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] staffer' and 'presented with voluntary self-deportation paperwork.'" And then, after she refused to sign the document, "'she was punished' and ...sent to a warehouse in an undisclosed location."
It was legit, yo. Too good to check!
And it was all a lie, according to the feds.
Well, that's at least what they alleged in an indictment that could send the 'Mexican national,' a.k.a. illegal alien, to a U.S. prison for a long stretch of three hots and a cot—and, if she's lucky, telenovelas on la televisión in the prisoner lounge.
The feds also say Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon will have company. The 41-year-old woman, who's old enough to know better, staged everything, according to the indictment. "This hoax ‘kidnapping’ was a well-orchestrated conspiracy. The defendant and all those involved will face the full consequences of their conduct under federal law," according to the press release by Central California U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.
The indictment reads like one of those telenovelas. Calderon claimed she was being followed, texted a friend, and went to a Jack in the Box, then to a Starbucks in L.A. where an LAPD squad car was parked
Based on video surveillance obtained by HSI on July 4 from Jack in the Box, but recorded on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, at approximately 8:20 p.m., CALDERON was at the Jack in the Box parking lot at the place and around the time where she was purportedly kidnapped.
After leaving the Jack in the Box parking lot, CALDERON then walked into the Starbucks parking lot located north of the Jackin the Box and across the street from a Shell Gas station.Surveillance footage showed a marked LAPD patrol car waiting at Starbucks at the same time CALDERON passed by. The video surveillance shows that at no point did CALDERON exhibit signs she was distressed; nor did she attempt to contact the marked LAPD patrol car to report she was being followed.
After the feds got the report of the kidnapping they began to track her two cellphones to determine where she was. They knew she wasn't in their custody but worried she'd been arrested by bad actors. A cop staking out one of the locations when she stated she'd been held hostage by ICE noted she was with an alleged co-conspirator in Bakersfield.
When police made contact with her she proclaimed, "They saved me.”
Her daughter, also known as "co-conspirator 1," however, knew her mom was fine. She told the cops that the reason she hadn't gotten back to the feds and cops who were trying to track down her "kidnapped" mom was because "'they' told me not to talk to law enforcement, and 'they' would reach out [SSA Browning believes that Co-Conspirator 1 was referring to employees at Movement Legal]."
Movement Legal is a far-left legal organization that represents people in the California Center for Movement Legal Services. An attorney from this organization claimed that their client, the defendant, had been kidnapped by ICE. Calderon told arresting officers that she was told by her attorney from Movement Legal not to contact authorities until after they held a planned news conference on July 6.
The daughter is alleged to have set up a GoFundMe page to help her "kidnapped" mother.
“Dangerous rhetoric that ICE agents are ‘kidnapping’ illegal immigrants is being recklessly peddled by politicians and echoed in the media to inflame the public and discredit our courageous federal agents,” Essayli said. “The conduct alleged in today’s complaint shows this hoax ‘kidnapping’ was a well-orchestrated conspiracy. The defendant and all those involved will face the full consequences of their conduct under federal law. I thank our partners at Homeland Security Investigations and all federal agents facing unprecedented levels of assaults for once again providing cool heads and professionalism during these difficult times.”
The point of this felonious exercise was to malign ICE, make money, and further demonize the president's efforts to close the border.
It appears that the left's "kidnapped" avatar for justice has just been caught in the act for conspiracy and false statements to the feds. Each charge has a five-year sentenced attached.
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