There’s absolutely no way a

[ucodegen]

There’s absolutely no way a family with a $52,000 income would pay 30% in taxes. They’d pay $2000, tops (4%), in federal and state taxes combined.

Wrong:
Social Security = 6.2% for both employer and employee (total 12.4%)
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/ProgData/taxRates.html
Fed Income tax rate @ 52k = 15%(on amount above 16,700) + $802.5 = 13.39% – I used married filing jointly @ 2009, but did not place deductions.
http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm
California state marginal tax rate for $52K is 9.3%. Total tax is $2531.35 = 4.9%
http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layouthtmls/swzl_statetaxrate_ca.html

Total tax rate is 6.2% + 13.39% + 4.9% = 24.49% (not including San Diego local tax (about 1%), not including property tax (about 1%) and health insurance. It also does not account for AGI adjustment for deductions – largest is mortgage interest deduction (which may drop him a state bracket but not a fed tax bracket, you can only deduct the interest not the principal) Nor does this take into account sales tax on virtually everything that Joe Legal buys (varying from location to location, but generally around 8%).

In reality, Jose Illegal will get $6/hour under the table working full time (if he does not want to work for that kind of money – there are lots out there who do).

During the real estate bubble – the illegals were getting more than $15/hour. In 1976, apprentice carpenters were making $15/hour, and journeymen were making a lot more.