Protests over illegal immigrants shuts down VA Hospital site at Lake Nona

Orlando Sentinel
February 16, 2011

Over 50 veterans, union workers and their supporters are gathering at the construction site of the Veterans Administration Medical Center at Lake Nona to protest the use of illegal-immigrant workers and a failure to hire union workers and veterans.

Contractors at the VA construction site are shutting it down because of the afternoon protests planned by many union workers and veterans.

A spokeswoman for general contractor Brassfield and Gorrie said construction workers were allowed to go home early because of the protests. The site emptied out more than an hour before the scheduled 3 p.m. start of the protests, which has not yet begun.

The protests are in response to last week's federal raid on the Lake Nona site. Federal agents arrested nine illegal immigrant workers hired by contractors to work on the site.

Nine people in the United States illegally were found during a multi-agency raid last week at the VA Medical Center, according to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman.

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