墨西哥总统将与两名川普内阁高官会面

Two key members of U.S. President Donald Trump's cabinet are hoping to soothe concern and anger about the new U.S. administration's policies toward Mexico.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly meet Thursday with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and members of his cabinet, in what is expected to be the first in a series of high-level meetings focusing on drug trafficking, trade and immigration.

"It's significant that the president is sending the secretaries to Mexico so early in his administration," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday. "It's symbolic of the meaningful relationship our two nations have." Spicer also referred to relations between the two countries as "healthy and robust."

The trip comes at what is seen as a low point in relations between the two countries, which have enjoyed peace along their 3,100 kilometer-long common border since the Mexican-American War of the late 1840s.

Trump has repeatedly insisted that Mexico, one way or another, must pay for a border wall, which lawmakers in Washington estimate would cost at least $12 billion. And just this week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security outlined policies that could result in the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants.

On Wednesday, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, quoted by Reuters, said his country will not accept new "unilateral" U.S. immigration proposals and will not hesitate in taking the matter to the United Nations.