Lefty Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was among those to help fuel an alleged hoax that claimed ICE had kidnapped an illegal immigrant mom and then tried to force her to self-deport.
Bass spread the claims in a newly resurfaced social media post — just weeks before the migrant, Yuriana Julia “Juli” Pelaez Calderon, was accused of staging the abduction as part of an elaborate scam.
“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.’ No hearing. Just fear. This doesn’t make anyone safer,” Bass posted on X on July 1.
Calderon was charged Thursday with conspiracy and making false statements to federal officers after the feds said she falsely claimed two armed bounty hunters had ambushed her at gunpoint at a Jack in the Box restaurant parking lot in downtown Los Angeles.
Her family held a press conference about the so-called saga, alleging the men had taken her to San Ysidro, where an ICE staffer tried to get her to self-deport.
Family, friends and community members call for information about the whereabouts of Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon.REUTERS
They later created a GoFundMe page soliciting donations.
But federal prosecutors have since said the entire tale was part of a hoax to scam people and “smear federal law enforcement.”
“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,” US Attorney Bill Essayli said.
“The conduct alleged in today’s complaint shows this hoax kidnapping was a well-orchestrated conspiracy.”
The charges were brought after the Department of Homeland Security launched a probe into the mother’s claims — including having ICE agents go searching “detention cell to detention cell,” authorities said.
They finally tracked her down in a shopping plaza parking lot in Bakersfield on July 5, when she allegedly continued to claim she’d been kidnapped.
Surveillance footage, however, showed Calderon leaving the Jack in the Box parking lot and getting into a sedan, the feds said.
Phone records also indicated the story was a hoax, according to prosecutors.
“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 from removing the worst of the worst from Los Angeles communities,” the DHS said.
The agency went on to rip “politicians and activist media” for peddling the hoax “designed to demonize law enforcement and evade accountability.”
“Calderon will now face justice and the media and politicians who swallowed and pushed this garbage should be embarrassed,” DHS said.
The Post reached out to Bass but didn’t hear back immediately.
