If they are assassins, they are a different species from what we have in Houston. The black spines, the flattened abdomen, the grouping behavior, and the slightly flattened first segment of the hind legs indicate leaf footed bug. As they grow a little bigger, the flat leg segment will become more pronounced and they will start to lose the orange color. Assassins will maintain the orange color and will develop brown patches on the sides of the thorax that will eventually grown into wings. PepperDaddler's pic is 100% an assassin. Several pics from different angles of assassins in my garden are in this thread:
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/32123-assassins/?hl=assassins
Here is a pic of leaf footed bug nymphs from Texas A&M website:
That's them. That explains the damage on the tomato plants too. Getting rid of them asap.
And yeah PepperDaddler's pic is what I have on my pepper plants. Saw them eating some bugs yesterday so leaving those alone.