Hate Crime: Two Men Arrested in Attack on Migrant Worker Camp

Two Marion men were arrested on suspicion of hate-crime charges after an attack on a migrant worker camp.

The migrants are of Asian descent, while those arrested are white.

The two men, ages 25 and 26, were arrested Saturday night on suspicion of malicious intimidation or harassment relating to civil rights.

Deputies said two men brandished a baseball bat and a tire iron, used racial slurs and threatened migrant mushroom pickers at a Marion convenience store. One of the workers took a gun from his vehicle, fired two shots in the air and the parties went their separate ways.

About two hours later, deputies say up to seven white men attacked migrant workers at a campground, allegedly hurling racial slurs and beer bottles at the migrants. One white man had a rifle and fired five or six shots in the air.