Liberal Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is facing serious scrutiny after promoting what federal authorities now call a “well-orchestrated hoax” involving a so-called kidnapping of an illegal immigrant by ICE. Just weeks before federal charges were filed, Bass fanned the flames of an anti-ICE narrative, claiming without evidence that immigration officers kidnapped a mother in broad daylight to force her to “self-deport.”
“She’s a mother from LA — taken out of her car on her way to work, and then held in a warehouse as officers hoped she would ‘self-deport,’” Bass wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on July 1. “No hearing. Just fear. This doesn’t make anyone safer.” Turns out, the only thing unsafe was the truth in her post.
Now, that same woman — Yuriana Julia “Juli” Pelaez Calderon — is facing federal charges for conspiracy and lying to authorities. Prosecutors say the whole story was fabricated to smear ICE, bilk Americans for donations, and stir up left-wing outrage ahead of the 2024 election.
According to the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, Calderon falsely claimed that two armed bounty hunters ambushed her at gunpoint at a Jack in the Box parking lot in downtown Los Angeles. Her family paraded in front of cameras, claiming ICE agents drove her to the border and pressured her to self-deport — a dramatic tale that soon formed the basis for a GoFundMe campaign to exploit the public’s emotions.
But DHS officials weren’t buying it. After wasting time and manpower searching detention centers and tracing leads, they found Calderon alive and well — not in a warehouse, but in a Bakersfield shopping plaza. Surveillance footage and phone records blew the story apart: no kidnapping, no warehouse, no ICE involvement.
“Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon was never arrested or kidnapped by ICE or bounty hunters — this criminal illegal alien scammed innocent Americans for money and diverted limited DHS resources,” DHS said in a damning statement. “This was a coordinated stunt designed to demonize law enforcement and evade accountability.”
Even worse, federal officials blasted elected leaders like Mayor Bass and leftist media outlets for irresponsibly amplifying the lie.
“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,” said U.S. Attorney Essayli.
Let’s be clear: this wasn’t just a misunderstanding. It was a calculated political hoax meant to vilify law enforcement and undermine immigration policy. And it worked — at least for a while — thanks to Democrats like Karen Bass who jumped at the opportunity to bash ICE without waiting for the facts.
The feds are now pressing charges, but don’t expect an apology from Bass or her allies anytime soon. The same people who scream about “disinformation” were all too eager to promote a lie that conveniently fit their open-borders narrative.
Mayor Bass did not respond to requests for comment. Perhaps she’s too busy drafting her next viral tweet.
