Mora is an American citizen and was accompanying his father, a legal resident, to his dad's work at H.M.I when two sheriff's SUVs cut them off before they arrived. Without explanation, the pair were zip-tied and brought onto H.M.I.'s property, where they had to endure a long wait.

Julian Mora, a 67-year-old who suffers from diabetes, was refused several requests to use the bathroom. Eventually, sheriff's deputies allowed him to urinate behind a vehicle parked nearby. His son Julio was allowed to go to the bathroom with his hands zip-tied in front of him, as the deputies watched and cracked crude jokes.

The Moras' ordeal is now the subject of a lawsuit filed in August by the American Civil Liberties Union on their behalf.