Born in Mexico, soon to graduate U.S. high school?

If he meets the requirements, he should consider applying for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. This will keep him in an okay situation temporarily. He can see where immigration reform goes over the next year or two and see if he may have more options then.

He can certainly consider a student visa, a spousal visa (if you get married) or leaving the country altogether, although all of these have both positives and negatives so he needs to research them thoroughly (and perhaps seek the advice of a good immigration attorney) before taking any serious action.

He does not begin to accrue unlawful presence until he turns 18 (his parents' choices do not count against him while he is still a child), so there's some time to really explore the best options. But I would recommend looking into DACA for now.

Okay look, for the time being he can apply for DACA as other people have pointed out. It's 2 years of work authorization and authorized stay (so he won't accrue the illegal presence which leads to a 3/10 yr ban, and DACA will get extended as long as Obama is in office). He will be able to get a social security number, work, and likely obtain a driver license unless you live in some racist backwater of a state.

Student visa is extremely unlikely in his case since he lived in US illegally.

If you're still together when you both hit the age of 18 and you want to help him adjust status (ie. get a green card), in all cases you need to make at least 125% of the current US poverty line, if you do not, other citizens or permanent residents can co-sign, all cases also require marriage:

If he arrived on a visa then the process is little more the filing multiple forms with a fee.

If he arrived illegally and is covered under DACA or/and didn't accrue at least half a year of illegal presence then it involves filing a few forms, and then he'll have to leave US, albeit with no 3 or 10 year ban and undergo consular processing abroad, and subsequently return to US. If you're still together at that point, and you want to help him adjust, it is important to act quickly before he would otherwise be banned from re-entry.

If he arrived illegally but accrued over half a year of illegal presence at the time, then the process gets much more difficult as it will be the same as above, but it will require the I-601A hardship waiver, and those things require phonebooks of evidence that spouse's absence would cause extreme hardship to the petitioner spouse.

Sci fi fan, go be a bigoted asshole somewhere else.

He needs to apply for DACA:

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb...

Thats sounds really complicated but im surr everything will be ok