WASHINGTON — Addressing a group of Latino small business leaders, Mayor Giuliani yesterday adopted a moderate stance on immigration, emphasizing the need to beef up security at the borders while maintaining America’s tradition as the world’s most popular destination for people seeking a better life.

Mr. Giuliani articulated much the same position on immigration that he has on the campaign trail, but he began with a softer tone, casting the country’s attractiveness to immigrants as a strength to be preserved.

“America is the country that more people want to come to than any country, I think, in the history of the world,” he said in a speech to the Latino Coalition, a nonpartisan group that endorsed a mixture of Republicans and Democrats in 2006. “So before we reflect on our problems, let’s reflect on our strengths.”

The Republican presidential hopeful told reporters afterward that his thinking had not changed since his days as mayor, rejecting recent reports that he had veered to the right on immigration. “My view on immigration is exactly the same,” he said. “It’s always been the same.”

He advocated a comprehensive approach to dealing with the issue, combining stronger enforcement measures — such as increased border patrols and the construction of a physical and technological fence along the Mexican-American divide — with a path to citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million illegal aliens now in America.

“If they’re working, and they’re complying with the law, and they’re making a contribution, then let’s sign them up, let’s register them, let’s collect their taxes, and let’s let them pay their fair share,” Mr. Giuliani said to applause.

In broad terms, his position aligns with that of President Bush and Senator Clinton, as well as Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts, who is leading efforts in the Senate to draft and pass a comprehensive immigration bill.

The former mayor’s remarks came as thousands of people rallied in cities across the country in support of giving illegal immigrants a path to legal status. The May Day demonstrations were reported to be smaller than similar rallies last year, but they were intended to spur action in Congress.

Mrs. Clinton released a statement through her Senate office pledging her commitment to reforming what she called a “broken” immigration system.

Mr. Giuliani drew praise yesterday from leaders of the Latino Coalition just for showing up. The organization’s chairman, Hector Barreto, said organizers had invited all the presidential candidates in both parties, but Mr. Giuliani was the only one to respond. Many Republican candidates are in California preparing for the party’s first debate tomorrow night.

“I think it was a very moderate, common sense approach,” the coalition’s president, Robert de Posada, said of Mr. Giuliani’s immigration stance. He criticized politicians on both the “extreme left and the extreme right” of the debate, and he said many presidential candidates were afraid of the topic. “It’s a radioactive issue,” he said.

Mr. De Posada voiced disappointment with Senator McCain of Arizona, who co-sponsored, with Mr. Kennedy, a comprehensive bill in the Senate last year but has not focused on the issue as much in his campaign for president. “To me, it is amazing that he isn’t here. He should be. This is his crowd,” Mr. De Posada said, adding that he supported Mr. McCain’s White House bid in 2000.

The Arizona lawmaker was in California yesterday, delivering a speech to the Hoover Institution.

During and after his speech yesterday, Mr. Giuliani also had harsh words for President Chavez of Venezuela, who has been linked to the former mayor’s law firm through the country’s national oil company. Mr. Giuliani said Mr. Chavez, who has called Mr. Bush “the devil,” was acting against American interests, and he derided living conditions in Venezuela. He said America needed to become energy independent, so “we don’t have to be sending money to Chavez.”

Mr. Giuliani’s Houston-based law firm, Bracewell and Giuliani, represents Citgo Petroleum Corp., which in 1990 was purchased by the Venezuelan national oil company that Mr. Chavez now controls. He told reporters there was no contradiction between his critical comments and his law firm’s connection to the Venezuelan president.

“The reality is I feel free to say whatever I want to say about Hugo Chavez, so it shows that I feel perfect freedom to point out that Hugo Chavez is a president who’s acting against the interests of the United States,” Mr. Giuliani said.