A woman from South Los Angeles has been federally charged for allegedly making false claims that she was kidnapped by immigration officials, the U.S. Department of Justice says.
Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, 41, is charged in a federal criminal complaint with conspiracy and making false statements to federal officials.
The complaint cites a June 30 news conference held by Calderon's family and attorneys from Movement Legal, where they claimed that five days before, Calderon had been kidnapped by "masked men" at a Jack in the Box restaurant parking lot in downtown LA and taken to the border in San Ysidro.
The family also claimed that while there, Calderon was presented to "[a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] staffer" and given voluntary self-deportation paperwork. When she allegedly refused to sign the paperwork, she was "punished" and sent to a warehouse at an undisclosed location.
The complaint also alleges that Calderon's daughter set up a GoFundMe page to help her.
The Justice Department says surveillance video of the Jack in the Box parking lot shows Calderon getting into a sedan. Investigators also point to phone records that they say show she was in communication with her family during the time that she was allegedly in custody.
The DOJ adds that on July 3, while Calderon was still purportedly missing, federal agents confirmed she was not in immigration custody. The DOJ says agents from Homeland Security Investigations found Calderon two days later at a...
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