DHS deputy assistant secretary calls media reports of ICE "kidnappings" hoaxes and gives case details

Micah Bach, deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, issued a brief statement disputing recent media accounts that he said falsely portrayed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as conducting kidnappings. Bach said the account involving a Los Angeles woman, identified in his remarks as Yuriana Julia Pelez Calderon, was fabricated and that Calderon "will be facing charges for scamming innocent Americans for money and diverting limited DHS resources from removing the worst of the worst from our communities." He told reporters, "that never happened." Bach also disputed a report he described as the "Allentown grandpa" story, saying the family had told reporters that a man was handcuffed and taken by federal officers at a green card appointment in Philadelphia. Bach said there was "no record of this man appearing at any green card appointment around the area of Philadelphia on 06/20/2025" and that "ICE never arrested this guy, nor does ICE disappear people. It's not what we do." Separately, Bach identified two people he called "criminal illegal aliens" who overstayed B-2 tourist visas. He said one was from Italy who had overstayed nearly seven years and had a criminal history that, he said, included an arrest for battery on a person 65 years or older and possession offenses. He named the other as Fernando Artes and said Artes had overstayed by about 10 years and that the Martin County Sheriff's Office arrested him on 06/26/2025 on an outstanding warrant relating to a failure to appear in court. Bach characterized several media stories as "hoaxes" and said the reports were being used to "demonize our law enforcement agents," adding that officers were facing what he described as an "830% increase in assaults against them." He also said, in closing, "Under president Trump and secretary Noem, if you break the law, you will face consequences. We'll see you next week." The remarks in the transcript are Bach's assertions and were presented as a DHS rebuttal; the transcript does not include independent documentation, on-the-record responses from the named individuals, or sources for the statistics Bach cited. The statement also attributes a role to "mayor Karen Bass" as pushing one of the accounts; that attribution is presented as Bach's claim in the transcript rather than as an independently verified fact. The transcript contains no formal legal citations, no charge documents, and no on-record comments from the people Bach named. The DHS statement therefore reports the department's position and case details as asserted by Bach in the briefing rather than verified outcomes or court filings.