Speaking as someone who’s lived at the bottom end of life in CA...I’ll tell you flat out, there’s plenty folk would love to earn what those illegals earn in the fields, but if you dont speak spanish, you damn well better not even think of applying of a slot on one of the crews.
This might seem inconceivable to "progressives" and many Republicans, but what you say is absolutely 100% true.
I was rebuilding a house with a guy who had just gotten out of The Navy. He was a die-hard Dem, who would basically accuse me of being a racist for complaining about illegals while we worked.
One day, I mentioned how, here in San Diego, you don't see Anglos or African-Americans (if I can get all my PC lingo together) working in construction very often because of the easy access to illegal Mexicans. He stopped and said, "You know, you're right. I really want to get into construction, but have been told, even though I just finished two stints in The Navy, that I'm not qualified because I don't speak Spanish." (Although he did paint the cutting board along with the cabinets, but that could be just because he was a Dem.)
This is absolutely what is happening in the U.S.
(And to those who might say, "Well, you were working on a home at the time, what's the problem with getting into construction?" This house was owned by the mother of a former in-law, and the in-law hired the other guy to help through an agency because he was afraid to hire any more illegals, thanks in no small part to me.)
My son-in-law was laid off and getting desperate for work and he tried to get hired in the fields. He only met with rejection at first, but was finally hired as a supervisor by a farmer only because my son-in-law speaks fluent Spanish.
The first few weeks the farmer had only praise for my son-in-law. Because of my son-in-law's get down in the fields and pick right along side of his workers approach the picking was going well ahead of schedule. But, after 2 weeks my son-in-law was fired. The workers staged a rebellion because my son-in-law expected them to work as hard as he was working and they were having none of that. Faced with the threat of losing his whole lazy slave labor pool the farmer chose to fire my hard working son-in-law.