SALINAS, Calif. — Senator Clinton has won the backing of the storied United Farm Workers union, further consolidating her hold on the pivotal Latino vote in the Democratic presidential primary in this state early next month.

“As Cesar Chavez said, the fight is never about grapes or about lettuce, it is always about people,” Mrs. Clinton said, invoking the name of the legendary union founder. “It is about the farmworkers who labor on our behalf,” she told a roaring crowd of union members and other supporters gathered at a college gym in Salinas, which calls itself “America’s Salad Bowl.”

The president of the 27,000-member union, Arturo Rodriguez, said Mrs. Clinton won the group’s nod because of her record pressing for universal health care coverage and her work to liberalize immigration laws. “She will ensure that Americans get health insurance,” he said. “When we asked Senator Clinton to help us in terms of ensuring farmworkers had the right to citizenship here in this country, she fought with us.” Mrs. Clinton wasted no time reminding the crowd that she supported legislation to legalize many of the illegal aliens in America and a separate measure to allow more migrant laborers into America, with the option to stay permanently. Both measures foundered. “It is a very difficult task to change our laws to reflect the realities of our lives and of our work but I look forward to continuing to push the AgJobs bill and to create a better relationship for those who grow and harvest our food,” she said.

In the stands behind Mrs. Clinton, hundreds of farm workers clad in red T-shirts bearing the union’s eagle logo chanted, “Si se puede!” The phrase has long been the motto of the Farm Workers and synonymous with its longtime leader, Cesar Chavez. However, Mrs. Clinton’s chief rival for the nomination, Senator Obama of Illinois, recently appropriated the slogan and the rough English translation, “Yes, we can,” as the unofficial mantra of his campaign. Even at Mrs. Clinton’s rally, there were signs of how volatile the immigration issue can be. Some of the farm workers, who toted signs saying, “America con Hillary,” wore cowboy hats or baseball caps. Not all removed them during the pledge of allegiance.

“In this country, we take our hats off!” one woman sitting across the gym shouted loudly as the patriotic exercises concluded, well before the New York senator arrived.

Mrs. Clinton included some tough talk in her spiel on immigration. “If somebody committed a crime in this country or the country they came from, they should be deported, no questions asked,” she said. That may have a common-sense appeal, but would be a significant change to federal law, which currently makes deportation likely only for those convicted of aggravated felonies. Immigrants can be removed for less serious crimes, but judges usually have discretion to block those deportations.

With the stock market slumping and the Federal Reserve making a sharp cut in interest rates to fight the global slowdown, Mrs. Clinton blamed the gloom on President Bush’s economic policies.

“We are in a crisis. People are losing their homes and others are finding that their home values are beginning to decline. I paint this picture because we have to face the reality, don’t we. We can’t pretend we don’t have problems,” she said.

As Mrs. Clinton discussed the economic downturn, she reminded the crowd of the economic successes of President Clinton’s term by recognizing a familiar face in the audience, Leon Panetta.

“Leon was there at the beginning of my husband’s administration and did so much to give us the economic boom that we had during the 1990s,” she said. “We’re going to get it back again. We’re going to put America back to work.”

Mr. Panetta, a former congressman, budget chief, and White House chief of staff, made a donation to Mrs. Clinton in March but has kept a low profile in the White House race. “This is the first campaign event I’d been to,” he told The New York Sun. He said he attended “out of loyalty to the Clintons,” quickly adding, “I do support her.”

“She’s going to be facing in many respects the same kind of situation her husband faced: an economy in recession and a huge deficit,” he said. “When we encountered each other before the event, she said, ‘All the work we did on the economic plan back then, it’s all gone to hell.'”

Mrs. Clinton spoke publicly yesterday about getting Mr. Panetta, who now runs a policy institute in Monterey, involved in a bipartisan effort to overhaul Social Security. He told the Sun he’d be “happy” to offer advice, but was less than enthusiastic about taking a full-time Washington job. He also lamented the sharply negative attacks Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama exchanged at a debate Monday night. “I hope they stick to the issues and don’t get personal with one another,” he said.

At a hastily called news conference in Washington yesterday morning, Mrs. Clinton blamed the nasty tone on Mr. Obama being “very frustrated” over setbacks in early contests. “He clearly came last night looking for a fight. He was determined and launched right into it,” the former first lady said.