US Republican candidate Donald Trump is to visit Mexico on Wednesday

US Republican candidate Donald Trump is to
visit Mexico on Wednesday, hours before he
details measures against illegal immigration in a
speech.
Mr Trump tweeted that he was looking forward
to meeting President Enrique Pena Nieto, who
has invited both him and Democrat Hillary
Clinton.

Mr Pena Nieto said dialogue would help "protect
Mexicans wherever they are".
Mr Trump has condemned Mexican migrants
during his campaign and vowed to build a wall
between the two countries.
He will visit Mexico in between a fundraising
event in California and his immigration speech in
Phoenix, Arizona, on Wednesday night.

   The Republican has seen his poll ratings slip
since the party conventions last month.
Both nationally and in key states, he trails Mrs
Clinton, who enjoys particularly strong support
among minorities.
The Mexican president said he had invited both
candidates for talks and would meet Trump in
private on Wednesday.
"I believe in dialogue to protect Mexican
interests in the world and, principally, to protect
Mexicans wherever they are," he said.
 

 

Mrs Clinton's campaign has not yet said if she

will travel to Mexico.

Analysis - Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America

Reporter

Mr Trump going to Mexico is a bold move. It

shows he is willing to confront a nation he has

mocked in the past. It may make him - dare I

say? - look statesmanlike. And if Pena Nieto

slams him afterwards, it could end up working to

Mr Trump's benefit.

There is no better way to get conservatives to

rally around a candidacy than to have a foreign

leader cast aspersions on the nominee.

One risk is that Mr Trump might say or do

something controversial while there, although

this likely will be a very tightly controlled

meeting.

Another is that Mr Trump's base, the voters who

cheered as he called undocumented Mexican

immigrants "rapists" and "drug dealers", will

consider this visit consorting with the enemy.

The stakes were already considerable for Mr

Trump's immigration speech on Wednesday

night. They just got higher.

Mr Pena Nieto has previously accused Mr Trump

of hurting US-Mexico relations and compared the

Republican's rhetoric to that of German Nazi

leader Adolf Hitler.

Mr Trump has threatened to stop cash sent

home by Mexicans based in the US until the

country pays for the wall.

BBC Mexico Correspondent Katy Watson says

the prospect has worried many Mexicans who

rely on remittances from their families who live

in the US.

Mr Trump blames Mexico for the disappearance

of jobs from the US, with companies choosing to

locate south of the border to take advantage of

cheaper labour costs.

In June he expressed anger after a leading golf

tournament was moved from one of his courses

to Mexico, accusing the PGA Tour of putting

"profit ahead of thousands of American jobs".

What Trump has said about Mexico

"They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime,

they're rapists." - May 2015

Mexico is "ripping off the US more than almost

any other nation", he said in February last year.

"Mexico continues to make billions on not only

our bad trade deals but also relies heavily on the

billions of dollars in remittances sent from illegal

immigrants in the United States," - from his

immigration plan

...and what Mexico has said about Trump

Mr Pena Nieto spoke out against Mr Trump's

" strident rhetoric " in March, adding: "That's how

Mussolini got in, that's how Hitler got in, they

took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps,

which humanity was going through at the time,

after an economic crisis."

His predecessor, Felipe Calderon, insisted:

"Mexican people, we are not going to pay any

single cent for such a stupid wall."

After Mr Trump vowed to reclaim all remittances

derived from illegal wages, Mr Calderon's

predecessor Vicente Fox, told the BBC : "Is

Trump going to steal the money? How can any

human being think like that? It's incredible."