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,” the 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 self-deport.
They later created a GoFundMe page soliciting donations.
But federal prosecutors 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.”
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