logo
Distraught family claimed beloved grandma had been kidnapped by ICE...but now the sinister truth has emerged

Distraught family claimed beloved grandma had been kidnapped by ICE...but now the sinister truth has emerged

Daily Mail​6 days ago
A California woman faked her own abduction by ICE agents as part of a scheme to collect donations on GoFundMe, the Department of Justice said.
Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, 41, was charged on Thursday with conspiracy and making false statements to federal officers.
The charges came after family of Calderon – an illegal immigrant from Mexico living in Los Angeles – claimed she was ambushed by armed men in two unmarked trucks at a Jack in the Box parking lot in the downtown LA area.
Family members and attorneys held a press conference on June 30, where they said Calderon was brought to San Ysidro, a district of San Diego close to the Mexican border.
Her family alleged that she was then, 'presented to [a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] staffer' and, 'presented with voluntary self–deportation paperwork,' according to officials.
The family's attorney said Calderon refused to sign the paperwork, and was then 'punished' by being held in a warehouse, a report from the US Attorney's Office, Central District of California detailed.
Videos of the press conference show supporters of Calderon holding signs saying, 'our mom is missing,' 'stop the abduction,' and 'where is Yuli?'
Following attention from the media, the family then created a GoFundMe page – which has since been deleted – where they asked for $4,500.
Now, The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has stepped in to vehemently deny claims that the immigrant mother was abducted.
The DHS launched an investigation into the 'kidnapping,' during which they spent days looking for Calderon and even had ICE agents searching 'detention cell to detention cell,' officials said.
Ultimately, agents said they found Calderon in a shopping plaza parking lot in Bakersfield on July 5. She allegedly continued to insist that she had been kidnapped and held 'with others'.
Video footage of the Jack in the Box parking lot Calderon claimed to be taken from showed her leaving the lot and getting into a sedan, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Phone records also show the abduction to be a hoax, according to officials.
Calderon's family has tried to keep up the ruse even after she was discovered. They allegedly fabricated pictures of her 'rescue' to make it seem as though ICE agents abused her, according to officials.
On July 6, the family planned to host another press conference and increase the donation request, but then their plan was foiled by the DHS.
'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.
'Calderon will now face justice and the media and politicians who swallowed and pushed this garbage should be embarrassed,' the agency added.
US Attorney Bill Essayli also released a statement on the matter, saying: '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.'
Calderon now faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison if convicted for each charge.
The DOJ indicated that additional individuals involved could also face charges.
According to a statement provided by GoFundMe to KTLA, the organizers of the campaign will not have access to the $80 their page raised in donations.
'GoFundMe has zero tolerance for the misuse of our platform, or any attempt to exploit the generosity of others, and cooperates with law enforcement investigations of those accused of wrongdoing,' the statement read.
'This fundraiser was removed from the platform and the $80 raised was refunded; at no point did the organizer have access to any of the funds.'
The Daily Mail has reached out to DHS and ICE, as well as Calderon's family and attorney for comment.
Calderon's kidnapping claims come at a contentious time for migrants in the US, as President Donald Trump continues to ramp up his tough-on-immigration policies.
Recent ICE raids have seen mass deportations, and the White House claims that Trump has deported more than 100,000 illegal migrants since returning to office in January 2025.
Last Thursday, a raid of a cannabis farm in Camarillo - a city in Southern California - saw 200 migrant workers being detained.
Chaos ensued at the raid, with protestors violently clashing with ice agents. Trump directed federal law enforcement officials to use 'whatever means necessary' to arrest anyone who throws rocks or other projectiles at ICE agents during immigration raids.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Mexican national married to a Marine Corps veteran seeks release from immigration custody
Mexican national married to a Marine Corps veteran seeks release from immigration custody

The Independent

timean hour ago

  • The Independent

Mexican national married to a Marine Corps veteran seeks release from immigration custody

A woman detained at a citizenship appointment in May will not be deported following a judge's ruling this week barring her removal, but her Marine Corps veteran husband said she remains in custody at immigration detention center in Louisiana. For two months, Paola Clouatre, 25, has been held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement complex in Monroe, waiting to learn whether she will be allowed to remain in the country. Once a week she is allowed to see her husband, who makes the eight-hour roundtrip trek from Baton Rouge so the mother can breastfeed their 4-month-old baby and see their 2-year-old son. Clouatre, a Mexican national, entered the U.S. seeking asylum with her mother more than a decade ago. After marrying her husband in 2024 and applying for her green card to legally live and work in the U.S., she learned that ICE had issued an order for her deportation in 2018 after her mother failed to appear at an immigration hearing. In May, during a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services appointment in New Orleans, a staffer asked about the deportation order. Clouatre explained that she was trying to reopen her case, with her husband telling The Associated Press that he and his wife were trying 'to do the right thing.' Soon after, officers arrived and handcuffed Clouatre. Adrian Clouatre has spent nearly eight weeks fighting for his wife's release, remaining optimistic that their family would soon be reunited outside the detention facility located nearly 180 miles (290 kilometers) from their south Louisiana home. On Wednesday, they got word that a judge in California — the original jurisdiction for Paola Clouatre's case — had stayed the order for her removal. Adrian Clouatre welcomed the decision. He said their lawyer is preparing paperwork seeking his wife's release, though it's not guaranteed and could take weeks even in the best of scenarios. 'I just keep telling our son, "'Mom's coming home soon,'' Adrian Clouatre said. Meanwhile, the couple's lawyer is working to get the Baton Rouge mother's green card process back on track, The New Orleans Advocate/The Times-Picayune reported. While the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has already ruled that the couple has a valid marriage, the process has been held up amid the legal battle. The Baton Rouge mother is one of tens of thousands of people in custody as part of President Donald Trump's pledge to remove millions of people who are in the country without legal permission. Clouatre said GOP U.S. Sen. John Kennedy has also requested that the Department of Homeland Security release his wife from custody. Kennedy's office did not return AP's emailed request for comment. Kennedy is not the first Louisiana Republican to get involved in an immigration case in the reliably red state. Earlier this month, An Iranian mother, who was detained by ICE after living in the U.S. for nearly five decades, was released following advocacy from Republican U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

Uber dials up new fights with plaintiffs lawyers
Uber dials up new fights with plaintiffs lawyers

Reuters

time5 hours ago

  • Reuters

Uber dials up new fights with plaintiffs lawyers

July 24 (Reuters) - (Billable Hours is Reuters' weekly report on lawyers and money. Please send tips or suggestions to opens new tab.) As it grapples with a slew of lawsuits from passengers, ride-hailing giant Uber is again taking aim at members of the plaintiffs bar, accusing an attorney in one case of misusing confidential information and suing another group of lawyers for allegedly filing fraudulent personal injury claims. In a lawsuit, opens new tab filed on Monday in federal court in Los Angeles, Uber said a group of lawyers had conspired with medical providers to create and submit artificially inflated medical bills. Uber's complaint alleged 'unscrupulous personal injury attorneys" were sending clients to medical providers for unnecessary or unrelated medical treatment in a kickback scheme designed to generate fraudulent injury claims. "As this lawsuit shows, we won't hesitate to act when we uncover misconduct on our platform," said Adam Blinick, who leads Uber's state and local public policy team for the United States and Canada. Uber said 'fraud and legal abuse raise costs for everyone.' Igor Fradkin, an attorney named as a defendant in the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a separate case, Uber asked a U.S. judge last week to stop a lawyer from allegedly using and sharing confidential corporate information produced in a series of lawsuits by passengers alleging they were sexually assaulted by the ridesharing service's drivers. Uber accused, opens new tab lawyer Bret Stanley of misusing internal policy materials in the litigation in connection with other cases Stanley is pursuing against the company over vehicle crashes. In a filing, Uber said it was "facing the risk of competitive harm from the repeated improper disclosure" of protected business materials. The company has denied any wrongdoing in the lawsuits. Stanley, in a statement to Reuters, disputed Uber's allegation that he breached a so-called protective order in the litigation, and said he will respond to the claims in court this week. Uber's fights with plaintiffs lawyers go back years. A federal judge in Manhattan in 2016 faulted Uber for authorizing what the court called an 'intrusive and clandestine' effort to dig up dirt on a plaintiff and his lawyer in a price-fixing lawsuit. More recently, Nevada's highest court in January rejected an effort by Uber and a political action committee called Nevadans for Fair Recovery to cap the contingency fees that lawyers can earn in civil lawsuits in the state to 20% of the amount their clients' recover. Uber was a key backer of the ballot initiative, which would have amended Nevada law and taken effect in 2027. Opponents said the fee cap would have been the most restrictive in the country. The state high court in its ruling said the ballot initiative suffered from "misleading and confusing" language. Uber is also a plaintiff in at least two other lawsuits filed this year against attorneys and firms in federal courts in New York and Florida alleging personal-injury related fraud. The American Association of Justice, a trade group for trial lawyers, accused companies of targeting their adversaries in the plaintiffs' bar out of desperation. 'When bullies can't win on the merits, they resort to intimidation tactics against those who dare to stand up to them," the group told Reuters. There are other recent examples of companies turning the tables on the lawyers who sued them. Manufacturing giant 3M in June accused several attorneys in a lawsuit in federal court in Kentucky of pursuing fraudulent claims in the hopes of pressuring the company to settle. An early hearing in that case was scheduled for Thursday. In March, plaintiffs law firm Simmons Hanly Conroy defeated a lawsuit in federal court in Chicago by plastic pipe maker JM Eagle that accused it of 'systemic fraud and misconduct' over hundreds of asbestos personal injury cases. Simmons Hanly said in a statement at the time that the firm would "not be intimidated by unwarranted legal attacks designed to smear its reputation and derail its pursuit of justice for victims of asbestos exposure." -- Lobbying activity related to President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful" tax-and-spending bill, his shifting tariffs and other administration moves helped fuel a banner second quarter for some law and lobbying firms in Washington. Ballard Partners, which has ties to the Trump administration, appeared to be the biggest winner. The firm said its federal lobbying revenue for the second quarter of 2025 rose more than 300% compared to the same period last year, and was up 47% from the first quarter, reaching $20.6 million. -- French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte turned to Alexandria, Virginia-based law firm Clare Locke for their defamation lawsuit in Delaware alleging right-wing influencer Candace Owens has waged a lie-filled "campaign of global humiliation" against them by repeatedly claiming that Brigitte Macron is a man. Lead counsel Tom Clare did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding his firm's involvement. Clare in a press release said that this "lawsuit is about bringing that truth to light and seeking justice for the Macrons by holding Ms. Owens to account." Owens did not respond to Reuters' request for comment regarding the Macrons' lawsuit. Clare Locke was founded in 2014 by Clare and his wife, Libby Locke, both of whom were formerly partners at Kirkland & Ellis. The firm was co-counsel to Dominion Voting Systems in the voting machine vendor's lawsuit against Fox Corp that netted a $787.5 million settlement in 2023. -- In the year leading up to its merger with U.S. law firm Kramer Levin, global firm Herbert Smith Freehills recorded its highest-ever revenue and profits. The firm increased revenues by 4% to 1.358 billion pounds ($1.84 billion) and grew profits by 9.5% to 486.9 million pounds ($659.26 million) in the fiscal year that ended April 30, it said on Thursday. The firm in June combined with New York-founded Kramer Levin as part of an effort to expand in the U.S. legal market. Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer has 2,700 lawyers globally. Other large global firms with UK roots pointed to their U.S. growth when they reported financial results this week. Linklaters on Tuesday said U.S. profits grew by 57% last year, and Clifford Chance on Wednesday reported an 18% increase in U.S. revenue. Read more: New law firms bank on 'boutique' edge Clock ticks for Jackson Walker, US Trustee in ethics case involving ex-judge Litigation funders get a boost in budget bill drama, court wins ($1 = 0.7386 pounds)

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store