The GOP presidential candidate, who sponsored a comprehensive immigration bill last year, hopes to reverse the trend of Hispanics voting in greater numbers for Democrats than Republicans. However, he is facing criticism that he has abandoned his efforts to enact immigration reform in favor of adopting a “security-first” plan that helped him ease concerns conservatives had about him in the primary.

“Many Americans, with good cause, did not believe us when we said we would secure our borders, and so we failed in our efforts,” McCain told the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) convention. “We must prove to them that we can and will secure our borders first, while respecting the dignity and rights of citizens and legal residents of the United States.”

Vania Reyes, a student at Georgetown University who attended the conference, thought McCain could have spoken more about his immigration policies, but thought that his comments on the economy reflected well the concerns of Latin American voters.

“My parents came [from Mexico], and they worked real hard,” she said.

Before beginning his remarks, McCain criticized Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, for not accepting his invitation for a town hall debate at the LULAC Convention.

Obama is addressing the convention later Tuesday.