President to steer clear of hot-button issues on tour

President Obama will punt on hot-button issues like illegal immigration and trade agreements and will instead focus on the global economic crisis and climate change when he travels to Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago this week, the White House acknowledged Tuesday.

In briefings Monday night and Tuesday, senior administration officials emphasized that the president’s schedule, which includes travel to Mexico City to meet President Felipe Calderon, and to the  Port of Spain for the Summit of the Americas, will focus on the role Latin American countries will play in reviving the global economy.

{mosads}Unlike his recent trip to the G-20 summit in London and the NATO  summit in France, Obama will not make many specific requests.

The administration officials said Obama and Calderon will talk about the growing concerns associated with the illegal drug trade on the U.S.-Mexican border, but they brushed off a recent suggestion by a Mexican ambassador to the U.S. that an assault-weapons ban would help stem the tide of violence. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs affirmed as much Tuesday, saying “there are other priorities the president has.”

A senior administration official told The Hill on Tuesday that the thornier issues “require more time to work through, and they are complicated because of the ‘Hill component.’ ”

“This administration understands you need to work through these things with Congress,” the official said. “You can’t just do it in a vacuum.”

That said, the official added that while the economy and climate change are topping the agenda, immigration and trade will be discussed on some level. The president will be looking at “the totality of the relationship with Mexico,” the official added.

“You’re not talking about some [issues] at the expense of other issues,” the official said, adding that the goal of the trip is not to produce “some dramatic announcement” on controversial matters.

“The trip is an opportunity to engage in a new relationship with the countries of the Americas,” National Security Council (NSC) spokesman Mike Hammer said.

{mospagebreak}{mosads}Another NSC official, Denis McDonough, told reporters Monday night that the president will go to the summit “with some concrete proposals,” but he and other officials have declined to say what they might be.

Lawmakers will be closely monitoring what Obama says, and doesn’t say, on immigration reform. Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with Obama last month to press him on his campaign promises to revamp the nation’s immigration reform system. Obama has vowed to pursue passage of a bill this year.

Andrew Selee, the director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center, said that Obama’s trip is less about “concrete new initiatives” and more about sending a signal to Mexico and other Latin American countries that the U.S. is embarking on a new partnership and an era of “shared responsibilities.”

Selee said that the White House’s leaked reports last week that the president was eyeing comprehensive immigration reform as a way to get out in front of the issue without fanning the flames on a contentious issue: “They want to get something out there, but at the same time, they don’t want to make it a big issue. Calderon will bring it up lightly. So they’ll push it gently.”

The trade issue is just as tricky, Selee said, because the administration is still grappling with how to address the North American Free Trade Agreement and proposed trade agreements with Colombia and Panama. During his presidential run, Obama promised to renegotiate NAFTA, but he has since softened his stance.

In the 12 weeks Obama has been in office, he has dispatched Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder to the region, and Vice President Biden has traveled to Latin America, where he met with several leaders.

Those trips, Selee said, make it clear that Obama is trying to send a signal to leaders in the region that he views the U.S.’s southern neighbors as partners in addressing challenges like drug trafficking and the economy.

One example of that, he said, is that for the first time in the history of the two nations, the U.S. Navy is holding joint exercises this month with Mexico off the country’s coast.