(CNN) -- Two issues -- security and immigration -- often get too much attention when it comes to talking about the U.S.-Mexico relationship, U.S. President Barack Obama said Thursday. Now, Obama said, it's time to forge deeper economic connections to create more jobs and more trade on both sides of the border. "That's the focus of my visit," he told reporters after meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in the country's capital. But even as Obama and Peña Nieto pushed to shift the tone more toward trade and economics, security issues loomed large over Thursday's meeting. Peña Nieto said his government remains committed to fighting organized crime, but that the United States and Mexico must "cooperate on the basis of mutual respect, to be more efficient in our security strategy that we are implementing in Mexico."

It's up to the
Mexican people, Obama said, "to determine their security structures and how it engages with other nations, including the United States."