MIAMI – President Bush seized on hundreds of examples of the American success story at Miami Dade College’s Kendall campus graduation Saturday to make a push for his stalled immigration platform.

“Here at Miami Dade, you know firsthand the contributions that immigrants make to our country,” Bush told 1,500 graduates, 77 percent Hispanic, and their families at MDC’s Kendall campus gymnasium. “This experience gives you a special responsibility to make your voices heard.”

Bush renewed a call for laws proposed last year that would offer a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. Earlier in the day, Bush devoted his weekly radio address to the same issue, which remains stalled in Congress. Opponents say it is a form of amnesty that rewards people who broke the law.

Before Bush spoke, MDC graduates cheered loudly as Miami Senior High School and Miami Sunset High School Jr. ROTC students unfurled flags from 64 countries represented in the graduating class.

It provided a vivid illustration of a striving population of students from around the world, eager to advance through education.

In introducing Bush, Kendall campus student government president Christopher Miles, 17, said his fellow graduates are “people whose mothers and fathers never dreamed of going to college . . . the fruits of democracy, the offspring of the people’s college.”

Bush’s 20-minute speech made only brief reference to the unpopular war in Iraq. He drew enthusiastic applause and several ovations, especially when he referred to his brother Jeb, the former Florida governor who also attended the graduation, as “mi hermano.”

Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have drawn more controversy as graduation speakers at other campuses this year, where students have held forums and protests. Protesters in Kendall were kept on the campus’ perimeter. A few professors inside the gym wore green and white ribbons to urge a withdrawal from Iraq.

Bush singled out MDC graduates Gwen Belfon, 42, a single mother of four from Trinidad and Tobago who earned an associate in education, and Jimmy Zapata, 25, a Colombia-born U.S. Marine sergeant who served in Iraq, as examples of immigrants who will contribute to America and climb the socio-economic ladder. And he noted that MDC President Eduardo Padron, who came from Cuba when he was 15, also began his education at MDC.

“Today, he is the first president of this college to speak English as a second language,” Bush said. “Some people might say I am the first President of the United States who can make that same claim.”

Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, a key ally in Bush’s immigration agenda and his hand-picked Republican National Committee chairman, joined the President on campus, as did Republican members of the Miami-Dade congressional delegation.

Though appreciative of the big-name speaker, it was clear many students were at least as eager to hear their own names read as they were the President’s commencement.

“We’re excited about the President, but more excited about graduating, about what we accomplished,” said Ludwig Siles, 20, who earned an associate in criminal justice.

Bush’s visit was only the second by a sitting president to a community college graduation. The first came last year when Bush traveled to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College following Hurricane Katrina. Presidents traditionally deliver one commencement at a military academy and then often choose one or two other schools among the Ivy Leagues or large state universities.

Miami Dade is the nation’s largest community college, with more than 100,000 credit and non-credit students. The Kendall campus is in the heart of South Florida’s Cuban-American community. As he always does in Miami, Bush made sure to include language intended to appeal to that base by mentioning “the cruel dictatorship” in Cuba and promising that change on the island is near. But he offered no policy initiatives on that front.

Before attending graduation, Bush spent part of Saturday on Key Biscayne, headlining a $25,000-a-plate fundraiser at the home of developer Edward W. Easton.