Trump protest held outside DC luxury hotel project

Donald Trump is tripling down on his controversial comments about Mexican immigrants despite more businesses partners cutting ties with him. On Thursday, Trump protesters sounded off after they rallied outside his latest hotel project in D.C.

The protest comes after some of the workers at the new hotel admitted to the Washington Post that they entered the United States illegally and his hotel may be relying on at least some undocumented workers.

While government leaders from Maryland and Virginia were at Thursday's rally, two of D.C.'s top leaders were not.

"He doesn't understand that the same people he is insulting are the ones building this site here," said Walter Tejada, an Arlington County Board Member.

The protesters are criticizing Trump and his comments about Mexican immigration bringing rapists and crime into the U.S.

Trump is turning D.C.'s Old Post Office Pavilion into a luxury hotel. However, the protesters want the U.S. government to cancel the project. A hotel worker's union is even demanding a Trump boycott despite the new jobs that come with a new hotel.

"We don't need somebody that's engaged in hate speech," said John Boardman, President of Unite Here Local 25.

After an online petition, celebrity chef Jose Andres canceled a planned restaurant in the hotel.

But Trump fired back by saying he has nothing to apologize for and his supporters said his D.C. hotel is creating jobs both now and in the long term.

Last fall, Democrats like D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton said Trump's hotel was great for the city.

"I think it's destined to become its centerpiece," she said at the time.

Now, Latino leaders are struggling to explain why D.C.'s top Democrats were a no-show at the hotel site.

Silent in all of this are the hotel's Latino construction workers who say off-camera, controversy or not, Trump is why they have jobs.

There is no word on why Norton and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser were not there on Thursday. FOX 5 reached out to their offices, but did not hear back.

The Trump fallout also continued on Thursday as a second top chef has chopped Trump. Geoffrey Zakarian, one of the judges on Food Network's "Chopped" and the man behind several New York restaurants, said he is not going forward with plans for a restaurant at the Trump Hotel in D.C.