The family of a Los Angeles mother of three and community activist is claiming bounty hunters kidnapped her on her way to work. The men allegedly followed Yuriana Juliana “Juli” Pelaez Calderon in two unmarked cars on June 25, 2025, and abducted her at gunpoint. Calderon’s family, represented by attorney Stephano Medina, shared the terrifying story in a news conference on June 30, demanding answers and justice for the missing woman.
After the alleged abduction, Calderon had a chance to call her family and tell them what happened.
“In this very parking lot a week ago, uniformed men in unmarked cars kidnapped Juli, and with her courage and her strength ā even though we don’t know where Juli is and we don’t know when we will find her ā Juli has managed to make two phone calls to the family since she’s been kidnapped,” Medina said during the news conference. “And so I want to share with you some of the details that Juli has shared with us.”
Calderon contacted her family and said that on her way to work on the evening of June 25, she noticed two unmarked cars following her, Medina said. She pulled into a Jack-In-The-Box restaurant parking lot, hoping the men would pass, but instead, they allegedly followed her and abducted her.
According to Medina, Calderon said the men did not identify themselves as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and the woman feared they were bounty hunters.
“Juli told us that when she was picked up in this parking lot, she wasn’t taken to any Detention Center. She wasn’t taken to be processed,” Medina explained. “Instead, Juli was taken directly from this parking lot to the border at San Ysidro, and there she was presented to an ICE staffer. There, Juli was presented with voluntary self-deportation paperwork. She was taken straight from here to the border and pressured to sign self-deportation paperwork.”
Calderon, an immigrant, reportedly refused to sign the paperwork and allegedly wound up in a warehouse. “She told us that some people had been in that warehouse for months,” Medina said.
Calderon demanded to see a judge and wanted legal representation. She alleged her captors refused her food and water and told her she would stay there until she agreed to sign the paperwork.
According to KTLA, US Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin refuted the woman’s claims on X.
“This woman was never arrested or ‘kidnapped’ by @ICEgov.If the media would have bothered to askāICE does not employ bounty hunters to make arrests. This bizarre tale about being picked up by bounty hunters, taken to an unmarked warehouse without access to food, water, or an attorney were clearly fabricated,” she wrote. “Lazy reporting like this is why trust in the media is at an all-time low. This type of fear mongering and demonizes our law enforcement who are now facing a nearly 700% in assaults against them.”
It is unclear at this time who took Calderon or where she is currently located.
