OPENING THE BORDERS:

It's unclear whether the lifeline that Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is offering Mitt Romney is long enough to lift the presumptive Republican presidential nominee from the hole he dug with Hispanic voters during the primary race. But Romney's odds of extricating himself will almost certainly improve if he accepts, rather than rejects, Rubio's help.

Rubio's lifeline is the alternative he is formulating to the Dream Act backed by President Obama and most congressional Democrats. Their proposal would allow the children of illegal immigrants to remain legally in the U.S. and eventually to obtain citizenship if they serve in the military or attend college. Rubio's version, which he will likely introduce this summer, would instead provide to these young people nonimmigrant work visas that would allow them to remain legally in the U.S. but would not guarantee them citizenship. Significantly, though, Rubio's approach as he has described it would not preclude those children from following the same pathways to citizenship available to others holding that type of visa, such as marrying an American citizen or receiving sponsorship from an employer.

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