Obama plans to discuss immigration, drug cartels and trade with Mexico, Canada

[HopeOverFear]

MEXICO CITY (AP) — President Barack Obama meets this weekend with leaders of Mexico and Canada at a time when drug-related violence, swine flu and the economic crisis are slipping across North America's borders like never before.

Obama, along with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, are expected to work on trade and immigration, drug trafficking and security, and clean energy during their first summit Sunday and Monday in the western colonial city of Guadalajara.

"The bottom line is that what affects our bordering neighbors has the potential to affect us all, so we want to be certain that we have the tightest and best possible cooperation," said National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones during a White House briefing with the news media.

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The summit — a part of the three nations' Security and Prosperity Partnership — was established five years ago by leaders who are no longer in office, said Maureen Meyer, a Mexico expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, which promotes human rights and democracy in the region.

The agenda is largely set by business interests currently, but Obama, Calderon and Harper may want to bring more citizen and legislative voices into the process, she said.

Obama has made Mexican and Canadian relations a priority, meeting three times already with Calderon, sending high-level cabinet members to Mexico, and acknowledging that the U.S. is partly responsible for the cartel violence south of the border.

"Mexico kind of fell off the agenda for President (George W.) Bush for a long time," Meyer said. "There really hasn't been this level of engagement with Mexico for years."