A pair of California men who posed as fake ICE agents and harassed local businesses as part of a social media stunt have been arrested, according to police.
The two men “donned wigs and black tactical vests” with letters blotted out so that they would read as “PoPo” and “ICE” before terrorizing community members with deportation probes across 11 businesses, according to the Fresno Police Department.
As the duo entered one store, they reportedly demanded employees show them documents to prove themselves, said police to the Los Angeles Times.
Police became aware of the incident after they received a barrage of calls reporting that they were being harassed.
Fresno officers then tracked down the suspects after spotting them in their fake uniforms outside a business in the city’s River Park shopping center in Fresno.
They were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of impersonating a police officer, reported The Times. Officials have not named the men as they say they were doing the stunt for social media exposure.
“As their actions were done simply to gain attention on their personal social media pages, we will not be releasing their names or other information,” the department stated.
The two men were later released. The Independent contacted the Fresno Police Department for information on the case.
Deportation raids in the U.S. have been rapidly enforced since Trump took office on January 12. However, his anti-immigration and pro-deportation stance have escalated to create a climate of fear for many immigrant families in America.
On Thursday, a Texas school district confirmed that 11-year-old Jocelynn Rojo Carranza, who devastatingly took her own life earlier this month, received a torrent of ICE-related abuse from fellow students.
The Fresno incident is not the first stunt to take place in the opening weeks of the second Trump administration.
Just days before the ICE stunt, another pair of YouTube pranksters staged a fake raid at the San Francisco City Hall by pretending to be Department of Government Efficiency workers.
The men roamed the building on Valentine's Day while wearing DOGE T-shirts, flaunted fake ID cards, and told workers they would need to audit their computer systems. They even requested sensitive data and called one employee's work “lists of stupid ****”, as per the bizarre video.
