April 20, 2012 09:13 PM UTC

What's In That Fabled "GOP Dream Act?"

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times reports:

With Republicans increasingly concerned about losing Hispanic voters this November, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on Thursday pressed his party to embrace a compromise measure allowing young illegal immigrants a pathway to legal status…

“Mitt Romney is the leader of the Republican Party now. Our hope is to come up with something that he can be supportive of,” he said.

The Rubio push comes as Mr. Romney tries to shift from the hard-line stance he took during the primary fight to a softer position that could erode President Obama’s overwhelming edge with Hispanic voters.

Republican strategists fear Mr. Obama’s advantage – hovering around two-thirds of the Hispanic vote – could kill Republican chances in crucial states like Colorado and Nevada, swing Virginia to the Democratic column and keep the president’s hopes alive in Florida. [Pols emphasis]

Unfortunately, writes the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent:

But what if Romney has no room to execute any such pivot?

I just got off the phone with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, an adviser to Romney on immigration. He stated flatly that he didn’t think Republicans – or Romney – should, or would, support any version of the DREAM Act that provides undocumented immigrants with any kind of path to legal status.

If Romney sticks to this – and Kobach said he would – there’s very little room for him to moderate his approach to immigration. In addition to advising Romney on immigration, Kobach is a national GOP voice on the issue, suggesting the right would not permit any move of this kind.

In a separate posting, Sargent quotes Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach as saying that anything short of requiring immigrant students to return to their native countries and apply for a visa would be unacceptable to conservatives. Nobody knows exactly what’s in Sen. Marco Rubio’s under-wraps proposal, but in any practical sense we assume this line in the sand would sink it.

But because this proposal is meant to supply political cover more than actually accomplish anything, such a conflict between Rubio and Kobach (and their respective wings of the GOP) could become considerably more trouble for Romney than any of this is worth.

After all, Romney needs to do more to improve his terrible numbers with Hispanics. The need to move the needle so far to make a difference creates a cost/benefit quandary: would he cost himself more support from conservatives than he would gain from won over Hispanics?

Be assured, this final question is the only one that matters to Mitt Romney.