SAN DIEGO -- Economic issues dominated a speech Monday by Sen. John McCain to the National Council of La Raza's annual conference in San Diego, a day after the presumptive Republican presidential candidate's Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, spoke to the group.

After outlining the problems of job losses and soaring fuel prices, the senator from Arizona said small businesses are the job engine of America.

"There are two million Latino-owned businesses in America, many of them started by Latinas," McCain said. "The first consideration we should have when debating tax policy is how we can help those companies grow and increase the prosperity of the millions of American families whose economic security depends on their success."

McCain said it would be "a terrible mistake to raise taxes during an economic downturn."

"Taking more money from small businesses deprives them of the capital they need to invest and grow and hire," he said.

McCain pledged to "keep taxes low and cut them where I can."

The NCLR has made economic issues such as health care and housing a priority during its four-day meeting at the San Diego Convention Center, where McCain also spoke at length about the need to promote foreign trade and competition in the global economy.

"We can't build walls to foreign competition, and we shouldn't want to," he said.

McCain's bid for the GOP presidential nomination was nearly derailed by his co-authorship of the failed Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007, which would have created a path to citizenship for the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, a position anathema to many Republicans.

"I don't want to fail again to achieve comprehensive immigration reform," McCain said. "We must prove that we have the resources to secure our borders and use them, while respecting the dignity and rights of citizens and those of legal residents of the United States of America."

Once the goal of securing the border is achieved, McCain said, "We must enact and implement other parts of practical, fair and necessary immigration policy."

Despite the setback in getting immigration reform passed, McCain vowed to continue competing for Latino votes.

"I know many of you are Democrats, regrettably, and many of you would usually vote for the presidential candidate of that party," McCain said. "I know I must work hard to win your votes, but you have always given me a respectful hearing, and I appreciate it."

McCain's recent efforts to woo Latino voters also included an ad released Friday featuring his remarks during a June 2007 debate where he encouraged the public to visit the Vietnam War Memorial "and look at the (Hispanic) names engraved in black granite," and said many U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are Latino, including some who are not citizens.

"We can't let immigrants break our laws with impunity. We can't leave our borders undefended," McCain told conference attendees. "But these people are God's children, who wanted simply to be Americans, and we cannot forget the humanity God commands of us as we seek a remedy to this problem."

That line drew the biggest applause from the crowd. Unlike Obama, McCain stayed after his speech to field questions from the audience.

While taking questions from the audience, McCain defended his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform, but stressed the importance of humanely securing the nation's borders.

"We had a plan, and still do, that's comprehensive, but we do need to have our borders secured, which we can do in a fairly rapid fashion," McCain said.

"So, if we are going to pass the legislation, we have to give the American people the confidence that we are not only securing our borders because of the issue of illegal immigration, but my friends you know what's happening with the drug trafficking across our border, which is killing young Americans."

Speakers called on McCain to end immigration raids on families and to do more to stop the deaths of immigrants entering into the country on foot through the deserts.

McCain decried the deaths as "failure of the federal government to exercise its responsibilities."

In his speech on Sunday, Obama said comprehensive immigration reform, including creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, must be enacted because the current system doesn't work.

Obama, D-Ill., also announced a plan to give small businesses tax credits to provide health care to employees, which he said was an idea first championed by his former rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.

The National Council of La Raza touts itself as the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the country.

The meeting has attracted a couple of dozen protesters the past couple of days, some of whom contend the NCLR is a "racist" organization. They were joined Monday by demonstrators against the war in Iraq.

A heckler interrupted McCain shortly after he started his speech.

"This happens every once in a while, my friends," McCain responded. "One of the things America wants us to do is stop yelling at each other."