A former Obama Interior Secretary and Biden ambassador to Mexico is publicly torching his old bosses' immigration record in a new book, arguing the administration "woke up too late" to a crisis it never treated with urgency.
Ken Salazar, who served as U.S. Interior Secretary under Barack Obama, Colorado attorney general, and most recently as Joe Biden's ambassador to Mexico, laid out his indictment in "Borderlands," a book-length argument that both parties have failed on the border for decades, but that Biden's team bears specific blame for lacking a plan, a point person, and any coherent message on the issue that came to define its presidency.
Salazar told Fox News Digital that the administration's failure began on day one and never recovered.
"From day one, there should have been a great sense of urgency in addressing the crisis of a broken border and the migration crisis that we are seeing."
That urgency, Salazar said, never arrived, and the political cost was catastrophic. He said the Biden White House made Mexico and the broader Western Hemisphere a low priority, left no single official in charge of border and migration policy, and created what he described as a communications vacuum that Republicans filled with ease.
One of the sharpest episodes in "Borderlands" involves a presidential visit to Mexico that nearly ended Salazar's tenure. Salazar accompanied Biden and several inner-circle officials to Mexico City, where meetings were held at the Palacio Nacional. Salazar wrote that he prepared to present his border plan the following day, only to learn that he and former Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, had been cut from the key meeting.
Salazar wrote that the exclusion brought him close to resigning his ambassadorship. Instead, he secured a last-minute private meeting with Biden and made his pitch directly: the White House needed a single official with real authority over border policy, migration, Mexico, and the Americas.
He told Biden the problem was structural.
"We need someone in the White House to oversee the border, migration, Mexico, and the Americas. No one is in charge now. We need a border and migration czar."
Salazar went further, telling the president the coordinator needed genuine power, not a title.
"[We need] someone focused exclusively on this crisis, with the authority to coordinate and direct action across agencies in Washington and communicate the message with one voice on these issues. With all due respect, Mr. President, if we are to succeed, it is urgent that we have someone like this in charge."
He pointed to Jeffrey Zients, who had served as Biden's COVID-19 response coordinator, as the model for what a border czar should look like, a single person with cross-agency authority and a direct line to the Oval Office. Whether Biden acted on the request is not addressed in the account.
Salazar did credit Biden with one concrete step. He wrote that Biden's June 2024 executive order sharply reduced border crossings. But the administration failed to communicate that success before Biden exited the presidential race, squandering whatever political benefit the order might have delivered.
That failure, Salazar argued, was part of a pattern. The White House never built a communications operation capable of explaining its border actions to the public. With no consistent message and no designated spokesperson, Republicans dominated the narrative, and Democrats paid the price at the ballot box.
"I think that's what trapped the administration into this sense that they woke up too late by the time they did the right things to get control of the border."
Salazar's critique cuts at something deeper than messaging. He described a party that treats the border as a domestic issue, focused on immigration reform and enforcement at the line, while ignoring the foreign-policy architecture that drives migration in the first place.
Salazar drew a sharp distinction between how each party approaches the issue, and found both wanting, though for different reasons.
"Republicans, like Donald Trump, use it as a political advantage because that's how they win elections. And they realized that way back 20-some years ago."
"Democrats, on the other hand, have a sense that it is very important. And they do focus, but only on the border and on domestic migration issues [like] immigration reform. They don't focus at all or enough on Mexico [or] the [border between Mexico and Guatemala], And that's what I believe we have to do. And that is what 'Borderlands' proposes that we do."
His proposed solution, which he calls the "Borderlands Platform," envisions a "New American Alliance" among the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The platform calls for deeper security cooperation, expanded labor mobility, and renewed investment in North American trade. Salazar also wrote supportively about renewing Trump's USMCA trade agreement, which replaced Bill Clinton-era NAFTA, a notable concession from a lifelong Democrat.
Salazar argued that American foreign policy has operated on an "east-west paradigm" for a century, looking to Asia and Europe while neglecting Mexico and the Western Hemisphere. That neglect, he said, is at the root of the border crisis, not any single president's enforcement posture.
Salazar's book and interview are not a blanket endorsement of either party. He acknowledged that Trump correctly identified the border as broken. But he criticized what he called a divisive approach, pointing to what he described as "ICE-involved shootings" without offering specifics.
He also warned that the current trade uncertainty with Mexico carries real consequences for working Americans, particularly in agriculture.
"I spent a lot of time on our ranch, I pumped the diesel into our [machinery], and I can tell you that across rural America, people are hurting because of what's happening with trade and we are losing a lot of our advantage here. Agriculture is in for a very hard time in the years ahead."
Salazar said the Trump administration has "an opportunity" because it recognizes that affordability, the cost of food, fuel, and everyday goods, matters to voters. He cited strawberries, blueberries, and avocados as products directly affected by tariffs and trade friction with Mexico.
Asked whether he would meet with Trump to discuss his proposals, Salazar said he did not expect an invitation but would accept one. "I don't think that's going to happen, but I certainly would give him that advice," he said.
Salazar has met with several Democrats viewed as potential 2028 presidential contenders, though the only one named is Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, who endorsed the "Borderlands" book. Salazar's family has lived in the American Southwest since it was part of Mexico, a detail he uses to frame his credibility on the issue.
He described his mission in blunt terms, saying he would do "everything I can to make sure that this is at the heart of every" Democrat running for president. Whether the party listens is another question. Democrats spent four years avoiding the word "crisis" while the crisis grew, then lost an election in which the border ranked as a top voter concern.
Salazar also took aim at the current administration's broader posture toward Mexico and the Americas, arguing the foreign-policy gap remains wide.
"What is being neglected here is the bigger picture. And that's this foreign policy paradigm that is so required for the United States and Mexico and the Americas. And I don't see this administration moving in that direction to create the kind of legal frameworks that are essential that will give us our national security and ensure that we have a border that works and ensure we have an immigration system that is reformed and does the right thing."
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Biden for comment. No response was reported.
When a party's own diplomats are writing books about how badly leadership failed, the voters who lived through the consequences already knew. They just had to wait for someone on the inside to say it out loud.
