Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said the U.S. proposals would be the main topic of conversation with the visiting American officials. | AP Photo White House calls U.S.-Mexico relationship 'phenomenal' as Mexican leaders lash out Mexico's foreign minister says the country 'will not accept' Trump's aggressive new immigration guidance.

The United States and Mexico apparently have starkly different views on their relationship status.

Ahead of a highly anticipated meeting originally designed to repair recently tattered relations, Mexican officials lashed out Wednesday at the Trump administration’s aggressive new immigration enforcement guidance. It was just the latest diplomatic flare-up between Mexico and President Donald Trump, who built his campaign in no small part on securing America’s southern border and getting tough on immigration.


But according to the White House, things couldn’t be better.

Asked about the Mexico City visit for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly that kicks off late Wednesday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the U.S.-Mexico relationship is "phenomenal.” Further, Spicer said Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who abruptly canceled a visit to Washington last month over Trump’s proposed border wall, would offer the same characterization.

“We have a very healthy and robust relationship with the Mexican government, and Mexican officials and I think they would echo that same sentiment. President Peña Nieto has echoed that at well,” Spicer said at his daily news briefing. “I think the relationship with Mexico is phenomenal right now, and I think there’s an unbelievable and robust dialogue between our two nations.”

Spicer’s preview of the upcoming meeting differed from that of Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, who said Wednesday that his nation will not accept the “unilateral” immigration policies currently being pursued by the Trump administration, according to a report from Reuters. Videgaray also said the Mexican government is willing to seek help from the United Nations in protecting immigrants in the U.S.

"I want to say clearly and emphatically that the government of Mexico and the Mexican people do not have to accept provisions that one government unilaterally wants to impose on the other," the Mexican foreign minister said. "We will not accept it, because there's no reason why we should, and because it is not in the interests of Mexico."

Those comments come one day after the Department of Homeland Security issued sweeping guidance memos giving immigration authorities wide latitude to detain and deport all “removable aliens.” Among other guidelines, the memos issued Tuesday will seek to deport all undocumented immigrants who enter via Mexico back to Mexico, regardless of their country of origin.

Roberto Campa, head of the human rights department of Mexico’s interior ministry, called that guidance “hostile” and “unacceptable,” according to Reuters.

Those memos, as well as their timing so close to Kelly’s and Tillerson’s visit, rankled some in Mexico City and further strained the already tense U.S.-Mexico relationship.

Videgaray said the U.S. proposals would be the main topic of conversation with the visiting U.S. officials.