As Trump travels to Mexico, Kaine serves meals at a Hispanic center in Pennsylvania

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - With Republican Donald Trump poised to make a high-profile trip to Mexico and a speech on immigration in Arizona, the Democratic ticket offered some low-key counterprogramming Wednesday.

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, the party's vice-presidential nominee, appeared here at the Hispanic Center of Lehigh Valley, where he helped serve lunches to seniors and stopped by several tables, chatting in Spanish.

Before departing, Hillary Clinton's running mate told reporters that he was not expecting anything dramatically different Wednesday from a Republican nominee who has called Mexicans "rapists" and "criminals" and promised to make Mexico pay for a wall on the border.

"The visit, and the speech tonight, we're going to follow it with interest, but the thing that's important is that everybody just remember [Trump's] actions . . . have been ones that have been very frightening to the community and very divisive, and I don't expect to see much different today," Kaine said.

"I think the campaign has been one where he has really put his feet in concrete over these positions of division," Kaine added. "And we don't need more division in this country - we need more working together. And this is a great example."

Kaine was referring to the nonprofit center here on the south side of Bethlehem that provides a wide range of services to Hispanic families, a rapidly growing part of the population.

Kaine, who spent a year in Honduras doing missionary work, is fluent in Spanish and often breaks into the language on the campaign trail. On Wednesday, he employed that skill often as he poured milk and handed trays to seniors through a window in the center's kitchen.

Kaine was in the midst of a two-day swing through Pennsylvania, a state that Trump has targeted but where Clinton has held a comfortable lead in recent polls.

John Wagner is a political reporter covering the race for the 2016 presidential election.