US talks deportation of skilled illegal workers

Boston, Jun 25: After Mario Rodas graduated from high school in Massachusetts with honours, the Guatemalan teen did what many ambitious students do: he set his sights on Harvard University.

He studied accounting at Harvard's extension school one night a week, while holding down an office job to save up for a degree programme and support his 5-year-old brother, Kevin. He felt good about his prospects.

Now the 19-year-old faces deportation after his arrest by federal and local agents on March six as part of a series of raids on illegal immigrants across Massachusetts.

His case highlights a paradox in America's quest for tighter borders: Rodas, who entered the United States illegally six years ago, is picking up skills that are valuable in today's job market, especially in Massachusetts, the only US state to see its population decline for two straight years.

It also illustrates how deeply absorbed undocumented immigrants such as Rodas, who overstayed a tourist visa, have become in the U.S. economy. It coincides with a contentious debate in Congress over reforms, like creating a temporary worker programme, that could determine their fate.

In Massachusetts, high housing costs and disappearing jobs at manufacturers and banks have driven skilled workers away to other states for two decades. Immigrants, legal and illegal, are filling the void. Most are from Central and South America.

''Massachusetts has been dependent on immigration for all of its employment growth since the late 1980s,'' said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labour Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. ''In the absence of new immigrants, the labour force could have actually declined considerably.'' Most of the undocumented workers fill construction, landscaping and other unskilled jobs. A Boston Globe analysis published on Sunday of nine recent public works projects showed that a third of 242 workers on weekly payroll lists lacked legitimate Social Security numbers.

REUTERS