Today, he will graduate with an accounting degree from the University of Washington. He calculates that his five years of study there have cost his family more than $100,000.

Yet for the time being, the degree is virtually useless to him.

The corporations and accounting firms that are hiring Wang's friends aren't even considering him. So next week, while many of his classmates move on to careers or graduate school, he will return to his job at a Puyallup restaurant where he's worked for the past three years.

Wang, who shares a Renton home with a group of buddies, is an illegal immigrant — a Taiwanese national who came to the United States when he was 14 and overstayed a visitor's visa.

"It's a shame. I have this great education and all I can do is serve tables," he said.

Even if one of the accounting firms wanted to hire the 25-year-old on a work visa — known as an H1-B visa — Wang would have to return to Taiwan and face a 10-year ban from the U.S. before he could take the job.

"The recruiters don't even talk to me," he said. "Legally, there's nothing they can do."

An Asian, with a college degree, Wang defies the common profile of an illegal immigrant. Statistics show more than 80 percent of the estimated 12 million people living unlawfully in this country are Latino, with minimal job skills and often little education. Asians represent about 9 percent.

Just under half of the illegal immigrants came into that status the way Wang did — by overstaying a nonimmigrant visa, such as a visitor's or a student visa.

Of the paths people take to make themselves legal in this country, none appears open to Wang, short of marrying a U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident.

"There's really nothing for him," said Crystal Williams, deputy director for programs with the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington, D.C. "And it's depressingly common."

Eyes on a DREAM

Wang and others in his predicament have pinned their hopes on a measure included in the U.S. Senate immigration bill that would provide them a path to legal status.

Known as the DREAM Act, the bipartisan legislation would enable illegal immigrants who have earned a diploma from a U.S. high school to qualify for in-state tuition and legal status.

Williams says Wang might have to re-enroll in college in order to qualify for the DREAM Act, since the measure appears to apply only to those currently enrolled in school.

Ira Mehlman, with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors greater immigration restrictions, said the measure is simply "amnesty for children whose parents broke the law."

People like Wang, he said, "are parachute kids, who come here, stay with relatives and get the American taxpayer to pay for their education."

"It sends a harmful message that if you bring or send your kids to this country illegally, there'll be a green card waiting for them, and it encourages others to break the law."

The future of the DREAM ACT, which was first introduced five years ago, remains uncertain. It is attached to the immigration bill that passed the Senate last month and must still be reconciled with a less-forgiving measure the House passed in December.

Still, Wang is optimistic, saying, "We're halfway there."

He said he's unlike many fellow DREAM Act candidates because his family has helped pay for his education.

Also, "most of them were brought here by their parents and have a home here," he said. "I don't even have a family here."

If he was to attain legal status, he could return to Taiwan — for the first time since he left — to visit his family and see his 90-year-old grandmother.

Arrived at age 14

Wang was 14 when his parents, worried he might follow the path of his two older brothers into gangs, sent him to New York to live with family friends.

He said his host family was extorting money from his parents, and when he was 16 he moved out to live by himself in the basement of a home in Queens, with financial support from his parents. Wang said the New York family was to help him and his parents resolve his visa situation, possibly by helping him get a student visa so he could go to school here legally.

That didn't happen.

"I didn't make this decision," he said. "It was handed to me at a young age.

"It was a horrible decision and my parents feel terrible about it. They figured if they sent me it would be OK. They regret it, but there's nothing they can do about it now."

In 1998, Wang graduated from Forest Hills High School in Queens.

Neither of his two brothers back in Taiwan had finished high school. One of them became so addicted to heroin, it tore the family apart, he said.

His parents eventually divorced.

An American pastor in Taiwan who was a former heroin addict helped his brother turn his life around.

"I often wonder how my life would have turned out if I didn't come here," Wang said.

Wang was accepted to the University of Washington. Typically, colleges and universities inquire about a student's immigration status only to determine whether they should pay tuition at the in-state, out-of-state or international-student rate.

Three years ago, the state Legislature passed a measure allowing students who are illegal immigrants to qualify for in-state tuition if they graduated from a Washington high school. Similar provisions exist in 10 other states and are being legally challenged in two.

At the UW, about 30 illegal immigrant students this school year are taking advantage of the program.

Wang didn't qualify because he didn't attend high school here and said he didn't realize New York state had a similar program. Out-of-state tuition at the UW, plus room and board, has probably cost him and his family more than $100,000 over five years.

A friend from church helped him land the job at the Puyallup restaurant, and he took a few years off to work and help pay for his education.

Even when he lived alone, Wang said, he never considered returning to Taiwan.

"It was important that I finish my education," he said.

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com

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