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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- At opposite sides of New Hampshire, John McCain faced two corporate audiences in two college towns earlier this month. Only one topic came up in both places when he starting taking questions: illegal immigration.

The Republican presidential hopeful gets so many questions -- sometimes hostile -- about immigration at his town hall meetings that he quips, ''This meeting is adjourned,'' before explaining his position at length. It was the first question asked when he visited the spacious headquarters of C&S Wholesale Grocers, a multibillion-dollar grocery supplier in Keene. A day earlier, an employee at a gleaming printing press manufacturer in Durham appeared skeptical after hearing him explain his stance, which prompted McCain to give her a chance to respond.

''I just think it's not fair to all the people who came here legally and went through the process and now all the illegals, you're just gonna give 'em citizenship?'' she said. ''That's not fair.''

In a recent Associated Press-Pew Research Center poll, 17 percent of likely Republican voters in the New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation presidential primary named illegal immigration as the one issue they want to hear candidates talk about, making it second only to Iraq. In Iowa, where caucuses kick of the presidential nominating season, immigration was the leading issue for 18 percent of Republicans, ahead of Iraq.

The figures are somewhat surprising in New Hampshire, a state of 1.3 million people with a small immigrant population and even smaller illegal one. There were 14,000 more foreign-born residents in the state last year than in 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A report last year by the Pew Hispanic Center estimated the state is home to somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 illegal immigrants.

Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, said he has believed for a year or so that illegal immigration would be important in the GOP primary because it strikes so many chords. There's the economic argument: Illegal immigrants are taking jobs from Americans. There's the legal one: They're breaking the law. There's the cultural argument: They're not assimilating into American culture. And then there's what Smith calls the ''racial overlay.''

''You've got all these different facets of this issue, which is just primed and ready to go off,'' said Smith, whose most recent poll also had immigration as the number two issue for New Hampshire Republicans.

It doesn't matter that New Hampshire has little direct experience.

''It's the kind of issue that you don't have to be impacted by it personally to be concerned about,'' Smith said.

JoAnn Sherman, 54, of New Boston, N.H., considers illegal immigration second in importance only to the war on terrorism. Though she says she welcomes legal immigrants who assimilate into American culture, she feels strongly about illegal immigration.

''It's costing those of us who work and pay taxes millions and millions of dollars to support these people who shouldn't be here in the first place,'' she said. ''They're getting free health care, they're getting schooling for their children. Yes, they're working, but they're not paying taxes. They're here, and being a drain more than they're producing.''

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