Two men who allegedly posed as immigration agents and threatened to deport Latino street vendors and day laborers during a series of robberies in Orange County have been charged with hate crimes and other offenses, authorities said Wednesday. The men allegedly approached workers while wearing fake badges and identified themselves as agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI or local police, according to the Orange County district attorney's office.
A week later, on June 15, a father and his son walking on the street in Tustin were approached by two men in a blue Audi. They claimed they were FBI agents and were searching for someone, and demanded the father and son show them identification. They then asked whether the money in their wallets was real. When the father and son became suspicious and called the police, the men drove away.