Donald Trump will meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Wednesday, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
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Trump’s campaign director Kellyanne Conway said the pair will discuss immigration, along with drugs and trade.
The U.S. Republican presidential candidate announced Tuesday that he will make the brief visit across the border for a cabeza a cabeza with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Wednesday.
After the meeting, Trump was scheduled to speak at 6 p.m. MST (0100 GMT on Thursday) in Phoenix, Arizona, a state at the heart of the debate over the porous USA border with Mexico.
In his campaign speeches, Trump has made several scathing remarks about Mexicans illegally immigrating to the USA and proposed that Mexico pay for a wall along its border with the United States.
Trump is expected in his speech Wednesday to give more detail surrounding his immigration position, which he has faced scrutiny for over the past few days after indicating he may be open to “softening” his positions.
He wants to deport America’s illegal immigrants, some 11 million of them.
The private meeting, which Trump and his advisers began considering last week after Pena Nieto’s invitation, will be Trump’s first official interaction with a foreign leader since he began his presidential campaign more than a year ago.
This meeting was established in haste just before Trump’s speech about the issue of illegal immigration in Phoenix, Arizona scheduled for Wednesday evening. It is not clear why Pena-Nieto, who already has low approval ratings, would agree to a meeting that might boost the candidacy of someone so widely disliked by Mexicans.
One risk is that Mr Trump might say or do something controversial while there, although this likely will be a very tightly controlled meeting.
Mexico’s former president Vicente Fox sharply disapproved of the visit, blasting it as a “political stunt”.
Trump has promised, if elected, to deport millions of immigrants who are in the United States illegally, force Mexico to build a huge wall to secure the almost 2,000-mile border and renegotiate the NAFTA trade agreement to make it more favorable to the United States.
Mexico City-based security analyst Alejandro Hope suggested that Pena Nieto “wanted to invite Hillary, but that meant inviting both of them, and nobody thought Trump would accept first”.
“I believe in dialogue to promote Mexico’s interests in the world, and chiefly, to protect Mexicans wherever they are”.
But, Peña Nieto has said he is not willing to pay for any wall and in an interview with CCN he compared Trump to Mussolini and Hitler, who came to power during an economic crisis.
Clinton’s campaign, meanwhile, urged voters to not get distracted by Trump’s visit to Mexico or “be fooled” by what it called his attempts to disguise his immigration policies.
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Mike Pence says that Donald Trump’s trip to Mexico demonstrates what a “decisive leader” he would be if elected president.
