Well yeah, but I don't think it'll fly nowadays. And shouldn't

Realistically you can’t get big infrastructure projects built without angering some group of people. People here in the US love the highway system, but there’s absolutely no way anything like it could be built today.

At some point we just need to decide that a project is worth building, and will be built, regardless of the opposition.

"Angering some group of people" is one way to put it. "Railroad labor camps" would be more accurate.

How does your food get made, your food get picked, your grass get cut, your meat get packed, etc?

Well being that this is the federal government, it doesn't get to use the immigrant labor that the private sector does, so you are right.

You’re not going to get much argument from me about how private industry exploits under-the-table labor. Doesn’t mean it’s a good thing when done under government aegis