LOS ANGELES, CA — A South Los Angeles woman pleaded guilty Monday to staging a phony kidnapping by federal immigration agents, a hoax that sparked media coverage and prompted community organizers to publicly demand her release, federal prosecutors announced.
Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderón, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to interfere with the lawful functions of Homeland Security Investigations, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors described Calderón as "an illegal immigrant from Mexico."
According to prosecutors, Calderón fabricated her disappearance in June 2025, falsely claiming that federal agents or people working on their behalf had taken her into custody.
On June 25, 2025, Calderón told someone she was being detained by immigration officials near a fast-food restaurant. She claimed agents had turned on their lights and threatened to break her car window, according to prosecutors.
Two days later, she called a member of a tenants' rights group using a blocked phone number and claimed authorities had taken her to San Ysidro near the Mexican border, where detainees were being pressured to sign voluntary removal documents.
She later told another person she had been transferred to a warehouse at an unknown location with other detainees.
On June 28, Calderón made another call claiming she was being held alongside people who had been detained at an immigration facility in Los Angeles and at a gas station in Bakersfield, prosecutors said.
"As a result of Calderón's intentional lies, false information was reported to the media and law enforcement that Calderón had been 'kidnapped' by masked men in plain clothes driving an unmarked vehicle, who were acting as federal agents or as surrogates of federal agents," prosecutors said in a news release.
On June 30, community organizers held a news conference in Los Angeles demanding her release.
But Calderón was not in federal custody. She was hiding in Bakersfield, aware of the media attention surrounding her purported disappearance, according to prosecutors.
On July 3, she called someone to claim she would soon be released because of the publicity surrounding her case. That same day, she traveled from Bakersfield to Tulare County to stage her release, prosecutors said.
There, she approached someone and falsely claimed Border Patrol agents had just dropped her off. She asked the person to serve as a witness in a lawsuit she planned to file against the agency, according to her plea agreement.
"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," prosecutors said in a release.
From July 3 through July 5, Calderón turned off her phones and refused to answer calls from law enforcement officials searching for her. She also encouraged others not to respond to investigators.
U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson scheduled Calderón's sentencing for Feb. 8.
She faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.
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