The unexpected trip comes as Trump seeks to clarify his stand on illegal immigration, a contentious issue that has been a centrepiece of his Republican presidential campaign.
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Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday night to say he looks “very much forward” to meeting with Pena Nieto.
“There certainly can be a softening, because we’re not looking to hurt people”, Trump said. There is no news yet of when Clinton will also meet with Nieto, though it is likely to be soon.
Brian Murray, a spokesman for Christie’s office, deferred comment to Trump’s campaign. He was invited to Mexico to discuss ideas by Pena Nieto. She says the U.S.is an indispensable nation and has a “unique and unparalleled ability to be a force for peace and progress”.
“Too often, our neighbors in Mexico and Canada have felt that they were an afterthought in US foreign policy”, Christie said at the time.
KOLD News 13 spoke with Tucson residents about what they thought of each candidate’s plans, being that Tucson is so close to the Mexico border. I’m trying to think of the US constituency that will say, “I was skeptical of Trump before, but now that he’s made a brief, last-minute trip to Mexico, where he’s widely loathed, I’m starting to see him as a statesman”.
But it’s possible Trump will glaze over the fate of the 11-plus million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. in his speech Wednesday despite hammering his bold plans to deport them all throughout the Republican primary – a policy position that drew millions of Republican primary voters to his campaign and helped Trump cast his opponents as weak, ineffective and tied to the failures of Washington.
He added on that occasion: “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. I’ve had people say it’s a hardening, actually”. The billionaire businessman’s rhetoric has angered many Latinos across the US and in Mexico, whose president even once compared him to Adolf Hitler.
Last week, Pena Nieto extended invitations to visit Mexico to both Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, who met with him in Mexico in 2014.
The Mexican president said he had invited both candidates for talks and would meet Trump in private on Wednesday. During the past week, Trump appeared uncertain of his immigration stance, publicly entertaining the option of a more relaxed policy. For months, he has vowed to deport the more than 11 million people living in the US without documentation.
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Trump has already laid out parts of his immigration policy and they resemble some past Republican attempts at immigration reform, like using an E-verify system to ensure that employers hire properly documented workers, and swift deportation of immigrants who have committed crimes. Then he said there’s a “very good chance” that undocumented immigrants who have lived here peacefully could be deported. It is a tightrope act that he has begun to execute during the past week, but one his campaign hopes to conclude with his speech Wednesday.
