A former U.S. ambassador is publicly blaming the Biden administration for ceding border politics to Republicans by acting too slowly and without a coherent strategy. Ken Salazar, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico under President Biden and previously as a Cabinet secretary under President Obama, argues in his new book "Borderlands" that the White House lacked both a comprehensive plan and a communications operation to match it. That gap, he says, handed President Donald Trump one of his strongest political issues.
What went wrong inside the Biden White House
Salazar's central charge is that the Biden administration focused too heavily on Europe and Asia while neglecting Mexico and the Western Hemisphere. He describes this as an "east-west paradigm" in U.S. foreign policy. A pattern, he argues, that is roughly 100 years old and has trapped administrations of both parties.
When Biden did act, the response arrived without sufficient follow-through. Biden signed an executive order in June 2024 that Salazar says sharply reduced border crossings. But the White House failed to publicize the policy's results before Biden exited the presidential race, leaving what Salazar describes as a communications vacuum that Republicans then filled.
The border czar proposal Biden never acted on
During a trip to Mexico City, Salazar nearly resigned after being excluded from a key meeting at the Palacio Nacional. He managed to get a private audience with Biden at the last minute and pressed the president directly to appoint a dedicated "border and migration czar." His model was Jeffrey Zients, who had served in a czar role during the COVID-19 response.
"No one is in charge now," Salazar told Biden, according to the book. He asked for someone with authority to coordinate action across federal agencies and speak with one voice publicly. Biden did not act on the recommendation.
The Borderlands Platform
Salazar's proposed alternative frames immigration as both a national security and economic issue. His "Borderlands Platform" calls for a "New American Alliance" among the United States, Mexico, and Canada, covering deeper security cooperation, expanded labor mobility, and renewed investment in North American trade. He wrote supportively of renewing the USMCA trade agreement, which replaced Bill Clinton's NAFTA.
He pointed to tariff uncertainty with Mexico as already hitting American consumers and farmers, citing the price of strawberries, blueberries, and avocados. On his family's ranch, he said, he has seen the pressure firsthand: "Agriculture is in for a very hard time in the years ahead."
Salazar has met with several Democrats being considered as potential 2028 presidential contenders, urging them to make border and migration policy a centerpiece of their campaigns. Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, a Democrat, has endorsed the book.