[There are plenty of Americans who would be happy to carry cement and pick up stone from sunup to sundown for $6.42 an hour.]
The main problem is an endless supply of illegals drive wages down to that level.
Yes, I did payroll for a construction company in the 70s and 80s, wages are pretty close to what they were then. Funny thing is Americans were carrying cement, doing roofing in Phoenix in the heat of summer, carrying rock- you name it. The same hard working people were laid off so companies could hire illegals cheaper. First it was agriculture jobs, then construction jobs. Americans lost jobs to illegals beginning in the 70s and got worse over the years and no one cared. Wages were kept down, work became shoddy. No one cared. I get so angry when people say Americans won’t work, they worked all those jobs until they were told they had been replaced by illegals and were no longer wanted.
I am sure now it would take time to replace the skills with Americans since for many jobs they have not been wanted for a while. I know of many construction companies that went out of business because they refused to hire illegals and could not compete with companies that did.