A construction worker who placed a Mexican flag on top of the nearly completed Trump Tower in Vancouver, British Columbia, said he did so because he was tired of disparaging remarks made by the building’s namesake during the presidential campaign.
Diego Saul Reyna, a Mexican-Canadian, posted a photo of himself with the flag, along with a message to Donald Trump, on Facebook Saturday.
“I put a Mexican flag on the roof of the Trump Tower in Vancouver, just to show that he is benefiting from us and that we are working hard on his projects and that we are not all criminals,” Reyna said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Company Sunday.
Trump sparked an outcry back in June during his campaign announcement speech when he claimed that Mexicans coming to the U.S. illegally had “lots of problems,” and were bringing “drugs” and “crime” into the country. He described some of them as “rapists” and “killers.”
The real estate mogul is campaigning on a staunch anti-illegal immigration platform, and has routinely discussed plans to build a wall on the southern U.S. border, which he says will be paid for by Mexico.
“The comments Trump has made about us, did not stop us from doing the high quality work we have always done, in our home country or when we migrate to the US/Canada,” Reyna said in the post.
He noted that a number of Mexicans worked on the high-rise building in downtown Vancouver, doing everything from pouring concrete, drywalling, wood forming and general labor.
Reyna, a steel framer, has not worked on the hotel and tower project himself, but has several Mexican friends who do, he told the Huffington Post Canada. Reyna explained he hung the flag because they continually expressed frustration, anger and hurt over the remarks.
“MR Trump, we did our best work, your tower here in Vancouver is premium quality, and we were a crucial part of it, not just Mexicans but immigrants as a whole,” he wrote in the Facebook post. “The insults you have said about us, have not changed our work ethics … we just did the best work we could possibly do, for … ourselves, our families and the future tenants in your building.”
Reyna expressed hope that his message of “love and unity” will reach the Republican presidential frontrunner, according to CBC.
His post has been shared thousands of times since he uploaded the photo Saturday afternoon.
The Canadian news network reported that the flag was removed by Sunday morning.