The Hispanic vote is expected to carry a great deal of weight in such battleground states as Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and others with large numbers of Spanish-speaking voters.

Both McCain and Obama were warmly received with standing ovations and loud cheering. When McCain spoke, the audience shouted down anti-war protesters who interrupted the Republican’s speech. The audience chanted Obama’s name when the Democrat entered later.

Both McCain and Obama support an eventual path to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the country illegally, and, the issue is therefore not expected to be a major point of differentiation in the campaign. Still, Hispanics will be paying careful attention to what is said on the subject.
McCain co-sponsored broad bipartisan Senate legislation last year that would have overhauled the immigration system and improved border security; the legislation split the Republican Party as critics pushed for a border-enforcement only approach. After the measure failed, and in the heat of the Republican nomination race, McCain emphasized the need to secure the borders first before enacting other reforms, which he said were still needed.

The Republican drew sustained applause Saturday after answering the question of whether ``comprehensive immigration reform’’ _ and not just enforcement _ would be a top priority in his first 100 days in office.

``It will be my top priority yesterday, today and tomorrow,’’ McCain said.

``We have to secure our borders ... but we also must proceed with a temporary worker program that is verifiable and truly temporary. We must also understand that 12 million people are here, and they are here illegally, and they are God’s children.’’

Appearing later, Obama accused McCain of walking away from comprehensive immigration reform.

``One place where Senator McCain used to offer change was on immigration. He was a champion of comprehensive reform, and I admired him for it. But when he was running for his party’s nomination, he walked away from that commitment and he’s said he wouldn’t even support his own legislation if it came up for a vote,’’ Obama said as the crowd interrupted him with applause. ``We can’t vacillate. We can’t shift.’’

Like McCain, Obama also was asked how broad immigration reform will rank in importance at the outset of his presidency.

Obama replied, ``It will be one of my priorities on my first day because this is an issue that we have demagogued.’’

Responding to Obama’s criticism, McCain’s campaign issued a statement that said Obama ``worked to kill’’ last year’s Senate legislation by voting for amendments to it that Democratic sponsors opposed.

A recent AP-Yahoo News poll showed that Obama lead McCain among Hispanics, 47 percent to 22 percent with 26 percent undecided.

Still, Obama, who is trying to become the first black U.S. president, does not have a lock on the diverse group. During the Democratic primary, Hispanics referred rival Hillary Rodham Clinton to Obama by nearly 2-to-1.

McCain is hoping to build on recent Republicans’ inroads with Hispanic voters. President George W. Bush captured about 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, the most ever for a Republican presidential candidate.

McCain recently met privately with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Afterward, McCain said the war-ravaged country is making significant but fragile progress. He expressed confidence about prospects for the two countries completing a complex agreement that would keep U.S. troops in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires at year-end.

Obama also made a previously unannounced stop at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit wounded war veterans. His campaign also announced that Obama would be visiting the Middle East and Europe this summer. He’ll likely go to Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Obama has said previously that he intends to visit Iraq and Afghanistan this summer but his campaign would not say whether those stops would be part of the trip to the Mideast and Europe.

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