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MEXICO CITY - Savoring his post-election high, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger jetted to the Mexican capital Wednesday on a mission to promote trade and also talk privately with leaders here about the most contentious issue confronting the two neighbors: immigration.

During the two-day mission, Schwarzenegger and first lady Maria Shriver will breakfast Thursday with outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox, who visited Sacramento, Calif., in May. The governor will also meet Friday with president-elect Felipe Calderon of the conservative PAN party, who won after a tumultuous election this summer.

This is Schwarzenegger's first visit as governor to the Mexican capital. Politically, the whirlwind jaunt will serve as a post-election victory lap for the governor, much as a mission to China last fall was a tonic for his special election hangover.

"I think Schwarzenegger is thinking long-term," said Claremont McKenna political scientist Jack Pitney. "The Republican Party can't survive forever without a substantial share of the Latino vote."

The governor is traveling with more than 60 business delegates, representing agriculture, entertainment, banking and tourism concerns - several of which have made generous donations to the governor and his political causes. Mexico is the Golden State's number one export market, and its citizens spent more than $17 billion last year on California produce, computers and electronics and more.

Because he is focusing on commerce and tourism, the governor has not scheduled public events around immigration, said Press Secretary Margita Thompson. But Schwarzenegger said immigration would be a topic of discussion with Mexico's leaders.

"We are not only going to talk about trade," Schwarzenegger said Wednesday afternoon in Santa Monica, "but we also are going to talk about, you know, water, talk about the environment ..."

In addition, "we'll be talking about how we can all work together with (the) immigration issue."

Many Mexicans feel frustrated by American immigration policies and rhetoric, while some Californians believe illegal immigrants sap public services and take away jobs.

Schwarzenegger voices a more moderate approach to immigration than many other prominent Republicans.

"The governor has been consistent in his support of comprehensive immigration reform," Thompson said. "Immigration reform that doesn't just have a necessary focus on security but also has a guest worker program that focuses on the country's need for labor."

Nonetheless, his relations with California Latinos have had their ups and downs.

The governor received 41.5 percent the Latino vote Tuesday, according to the William C. Velasquez Institute - an unprecedented total for a California Republican. But Schwarzenegger has also made several verbal slips that have upset some.

He once famously called for closing the borders, only to later clarify that he wants them secured. Schwarzenegger also praised the controversial Minutemen border patrollers, only to back away from those statements. More recently, he mused about the "hot" temperament of Caribbean Latinos and speculated that Mexican-Americans may be slow to assimilate because of proximity to home.

Resentment also lingers in some quarters over Schwarzenegger's repeated vetoes of a bill that would allow illegal immigrants to obtain California driver's licenses.

Adal Ramones, a star television host in Mexico, refused Schwarzenegger's invitation to meet with him because of U.S. immigration issues. According to published reports in Mexico, Ramones declined to meet the governor at an airport outside of Mexico City due to his opposition to a border fence and disdain for participating in the governor's "propaganda."

That notwithstanding, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez predicted the governor will receive a warm welcome. One of the state's most powerful Latino politicians, Nunez made a state visit to Mexico last year.

"Just by his mere presence there, it will help dilute any concerns people on the other side of the border may have," he said. "His mere presence will speak volumes."

The governor is trying to "connect with California's Mexican-American community," said Louis DiSipio, who teaches Latino studies at the University of California-Irvine.

"I guess that's important; it's a sign of respect for residents of Mexico and for Latinos in California," he said. "These are nice symbols. But what will win California Latinos back are policies that directly affect their lives."

Schwarzenegger's two-city trip will include a lunch with governors of various Mexican states and visits to a supermarket and IMAX movie premiere in the capital. Friday, he'll travel to the technology center of Monterrey for an exposition showcasing environmentally friendly innovations.

As is her wont, Shriver will embark on what her aides call a parallel "good will and service" mission, visiting the Casa Alianza shelter for street children and delivering medical supplies to a clinic in impoverished Chiapas, a rural state bordering Guatemala. She will also bring an interactive exhibit of classic Disney art from "Cinderella," "One-Hundred and One Dalmatians," "Pinocchio" and more to the El Papalote Children's Museum in the capital. A Roman Catholic, Shriver also plans a pilgrimage to the sprawling Basilica de Guadalupe, which honors Mexico's patron saint and is one of Catholicism's most important sanctuaries.

Schwarzenegger trade missions tend to be elaborate spectacles that rack up serious expenses. Unseen donors underwrite travel for the governor and his staff through the tax-exempt California Protocol Foundation, run under the auspices of the California Chamber of Commerce. Delegates pay their own way. And the state covers some minor costs.

The protocol foundation arrangement aggravates campaign finance watchdogs, including Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies. They see it as a covert way for donors to court favor.

Stern says it's worth going to Mexico, but "the public has a right to know who is giving, who is going and who is influencing the governor."

Chamber of Commerce head Allan Zaremberg says the governor is not influenced. And he doesn't know who is giving. Donors "have an expectation of confidentiality when they contribute and we respect that," he said. "Just like Gray Davis did."

The protocol foundation's 2005 tax returns show that it spent more than $1.2 million to "lessen the burden of government" in promoting "California as a place to do business." That number likely reflects costs of last year's mission to China, plus some expenses from a similar mission to Japan in late 2004.