Illegal labor helps put Tucsonans into homes. Without immigrants, prices would soar, experts agree. Arizona

“It’s the dream home Robert and Alva Armenta thought was beyond their reach ”” a two-story, three-bedroom, coffee-with-milk-colored stucco near the base of “A” Mountain.

The Spanish-language talk radio that blends with the pounding of hammers at their growing subdivision hints at what helps keep new homes affordable: illegal-immigrant workers.

Illegal laborers, mostly from Mexico and other parts of Latin America, make up at least 34 percent of Arizona’s home-building industry, based on estimates from the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group. Two dozen legal and illegal local workers told the Star that in their experience, the percentage is more than half.”

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