đŸ”” ICE Kidnapping Hoax

Author

Citizen Frank
July 18, 2025

Good morning. It’s Friday, July 18.

Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass (D.) promoted what federal prosecutors now say was an elaborate hoax perpetrated by an illegal alien who sought to “generate public sympathy and solicit donations” by falsely claiming to have been kidnapped by masked ICE agents.

On July 1, Bass touted the claims of Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, a 41-year-old Mexican national whose family said she was abducted in a Jack in the Box parking lot on her way to work days earlier. At a press conference on June 30, Calderon’s family said “she was taken 
 to the border and pressured to sign self deportation paperwork.”

“She’s a mother from L.A.—taken out of her car on her way to work, and then held in a warehouse as officers hoped she would ‘self-deport,’” wrote Bass, citing a local news report about Calderon. “No hearing. Just fear,” Bass added. “This doesn’t make anyone safer.”

 
 

FBI agents assigned earlier this year to review investigative files in the criminal case against notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were instructed to “flag” any documents that mentioned President Donald Trump, Sen. Richard Durbin said Friday.

Durbin’s claim came as the Illinois Democrat sent the Justice Department and FBI letters asking them to explain what his office called “apparent discrepancies regarding the handling of the Epstein files and findings from a July 7 Department of Justice (DOJ) memorandum and instructions reportedly received by FBI personnel.”

Durbin’s letters, which were addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, added to pressure on the Trump administration over Bondi’s decision to withhold from the public evidence about Epstein despite past promises that it would be released.

At least three deputies were killed in an explosion at a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department training facility on Friday morning, authorities said.

Los Angeles County firefighters were dispatched at 7:27 a.m. PDT for an explosion by 1000 N. Eastern Avenue in East L.A., which is near the sheriff department’s Eugene Biscailuz Regional Training Academy, 5 miles east of L.A. City Hall.

No cause for the explosion has been announced.

House Republicans approved a clawback package Thursday that will cut $9 billion in previously approved federal outlays for foreign aid, NPR and PBS.

The so-called rescissions bill passed 216-213, with GOP Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mike Turner of Ohio joining all present Democrats in voting no.

The House faced a Friday deadline to pass the measure, which the White House transmitted to Congress in June in an effort to codify cuts to wasteful spending identified by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Police in Brazil swooped on the home and political headquarters of Jair Bolsonaro early Friday, searching the properties, ordering the former president to wear an electronic ankle tag, barring him from speaking to foreign officials or approaching embassies and prohibiting him from using social media.

The restrictions, ordered by Brazil’s Supreme Court, were motivated by concerns that Bolsonaro would flee the country, amid his trial over an alleged plot to overturn the results of the 2022 presidential election to remain in power. Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing.

Federal police also accused Bolsonaro and his son, Eduardo, of conspiring with the US government to impose sanctions against Brazilian officials, according to court documents. That action, the court said, “would directly benefit his father and financier, Jair Messias Bolsonaro.”

Israel issued a rare statement of regret for a strike on the only Catholic church in Gaza, which killed three people, injured 10 and left the church seriously damaged on Thursday.

The strike, which Israel claims was a mistake, led to backlash from world leaders, including Pope Leo XIV, and a call from President Trump to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Asked about Trump’s reaction to the strike in Thursday’s press briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was “not a positive reaction.”

Puerto Rico has banned sex change surgeries for those under the age of 21 and blocked public funds from being used for such purposes.

Governor of the US island territory, Jenniffer GonzĂĄlez-ColĂłn, signed the bill into law on Wednesday.

The bill would see fines of $50,000 per violation issued to healthcare professionals who provide hormone therapy or sex change surgeries, as well as 15 years in prison and the revocation of licenses and permits, per NBC News.

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