Illegal immigrant admits in federal court she made up ICE kidnapping story to smear agency

An illegal immigrant from Mexico pleaded guilty Monday to making up her story about a kidnapping, where she claimed bounty hunters took her captive at gunpoint outside a fast-food restaurant and tried to force her to self-deport. 

Yuriana Julia Palaez Calderón, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to impede, obstruct, impair, and defeat the lawful function of Homeland Security Investigations within federal jurisdiction, according to a Department of Justice press release. 

On June 25, 2025, Calderón allegedly told an individual that "immigration" was taking her captive in or near a fast-food restaurant and that immigration officials had “turned the lights on,” “threatened to break her window” and were taking her into custody, according to court documents.

Calderón allegedly called a member of a tenants' rights group, blocking her phone number, and repeated the false claims about being kidnapped by "authorities" and being pressured to sign voluntary removal documents. The woman continued to repeat her claims to others in the coming days, and the story eventually caught the attention of the media and immigrant advocacy groups. 

According to the DOJ, community organizers in Los Angeles held a press conference where protesters repeated Calderón’s story and demanded her release from custody. Calderón was hiding in Bakersfield while these stories were reported in the media, the DOJ 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," the DOJ said in its statement. 

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 8. Calderón faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.