Immigration reform: Building costs could soar. Up to 40% of home building is done by undocumented aliens. But no one’s talking about what a crackdown could do to new home costs.

“By FORTUNE’s estimate, up to 40 percent of new-home construction in the U.S. is being done wholly or partly by undocumented immigrants. Fuentes suspects the percentage in his home state of Texas is closer to 80 percent.

According to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center, 36 percent of insulation workers, 29 percent of roofers, and 28 percent of drywall installers are “unauthorized workers.”

Big builders don’t employ construction workers, legal or illegal. They hire subcontractors that in turn hire the workers who do the actual sawing and hammering”

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