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John McCain has supported legislation that would enable children of illegal immigrants to attend college, says the campaign of his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama.

McCain has co-sponsored The Dream Act in 2003, 2005, and 2007, which allows high school children of illegal immigrants to obtain permanent residency by attending college or serving in the armed forces, Rob Christensen reports.

During a visit to North Carolina over the week, Obama, an Illinois senator, said he favored allowing the children of illegal immigrants to attend community colleges.

The McCain campaign responded by saying it did not support amnesty or benefits, but did not specifically address the question of who can attend community colleges.

"The McCain campaign is trying to get away with something here," said Paul Cox, an Obama campaign spokesman. "They're trying to make voters think there is a distinction between the two candidates' positions where there is none."

Barack Obama suggested this weekend that children of illegal immigrants should have an opportunity to attend community colleges.

In an interview with WUNC this weekend, the Democratic presidential candidate said children who attend public schools should have the chance to continue to improve themselves.

"For us to deny them access to community college, even though they've never lived in Mexico, at least as far as they can tell ... is to deny that this is how we've always built this country up," he said.

The campaign of Republican John McCain issued a statement saying he was opposed to providing benefits to illegal immigrants, but did not address community college attendance, which has been a contentious issue in North Carolina.

"John McCain does not support amnesty or benefits for undocumented immigrants," his campaign said in the statement. "He has consistently opposed giving amnesty or public benefits to undocumented immigrants." (N&O)

The economy is the top concern among North Carolinians.

In a survey by the Elon University Poll, 35 percent of residents cited the economy as the most important issue facing the state, followed by gas prices and elementary and secondary education, at 9 percent each.

Slightly more than half said that the country has "strongly gotten off on the wrong track."

The principle issues that voters said would influence their decisions in the upcoming primary were the economy (88 percent), health care (81 percent) and the Iraq war (80 percent).

Respondents named Hillary Clinton the best presidential candidate to handle health care and education and John McCain the best for immigration, Iraq war, family values and taxes. Barack Obama was not selected as best overall on any issue.

"Interesting in these results are the obvious contrasts expressed by citizens," said Hunter Bacot, director of the Elon University Poll, in a statement. "On the one hand they differ between favored party and favored candidate, but, on the other, they are quite resolute about where things stand and why."

The live-operator poll of 543 North Carolina residents was conducted April 14-17. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.