President Barack Obama, fresh from a tumultuous week of dealing with the military operation in Pakistan in which Osama bin Laden was killed, will visit El Paso on Tuesday, a White House official confirmed today.
While White House officials would not say his reason for visiting El Paso, local officials said Obama may discuss several issues that have particular importance on the border with Mexico.
El Paso Mayor John Cook said he has been invited to greet the president when he flies into Biggs Army Airfield.
The president will then travel by convoy to the Chamizal National Memorial, which is adjacent to the border with Juarez.
"I'm assuming it has to do with border security issues, possibly immigration reform and possibly trade on the border because all of those things interlink with each other," Cook said.
U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said Obama's visit may serve to show the president some of the challenges along the border with Mexico.
Obama's visit to El Paso was announced while the president met with victims of the terrorist attacks in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. Those attacks, and the ones at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, launched the U.S. into two wars - one in Iraq and the other in Afghanistan.
One of the main targets in the wars was bin Laden, who was shot and killed by U.S. Navy SEALS on Sunday.
Since then, the president has been preoccupied with the fall out from the attack on bin Laden.
In New York City, he also laid a wreath at the site of the World Trade Center.
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