Source: Politics<\/p>\n
For nearly four years, Ken Salazar \u2014 the U.S. ambassador to Mexico under former President Joe Biden \u2014 grew increasingly frustrated with the White House\u2019s border plan.<\/p>\n
Salazar says he begged for a \u201cborder czar\u201d to run point on interagency coordination; he never got one, and instead, the moniker was inaccurately and problematically affixed to then-Vice President Kamala Harris. He asked for the White House to openly call it a border \u201ccrisis\u201d; the designation came too late.<\/p>\n
Salazar became so distraught that by July 2024, three weeks after Biden\u2019s disastrous presidential debate performance, he decided to take matters into his own hands: \u201cI should run for president,\u201d Salazar told himself, according to his forthcoming book, a copy of which POLITICO obtained before its July 28 release date.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was political failure to understand the reality of the crisis at the border, and the political consequence it would have on Democrats in the 2024 election,\u201d Salazar told POLITICO.<\/p>\n
Salazar doesn\u2019t want his party to repeat the past. His book, Borderlands: My Fight for an Inclusive America<\/a>, is part-memoir, part-manifesto. Salazar \u2014 the former Interior secretary, Democratic U.S. senator, and Colorado attorney general \u2014 makes a case for what he calls \u201ca new North American alliance,\u201d in which the U.S., Canada and Mexico integrate their supply chains, jointly patrol their shared borders and promote cultural and educational exchanges. He sees it as a revival of former President John F. Kennedy\u2019s Alliance for Progress<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the book is also a warning to future 2028 Democratic presidential candidates.<\/p>\n Salazar is positioning himself as his party\u2019s immigration whisperer, meeting with presidential hopefuls and pitching them on his \u201cborderlands platform,\u201d<\/a> which says the U.S.\u2019 borders are \u201cbroken\u201d and \u201cmust be fixed.\u201d He said in an interview that he\u2019s already met with Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego about his plan, and he has a meeting scheduled with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. (Spokespeople for Kelly, Gallego and Pritzker did not respond to requests for comment.)<\/p>\n Salazar never followed through with his plan of running for president in 2024. Although he dialed up advisers and operatives and drafted out a platform, the Democratic Party did not hold a mini-primary to choose its new nominee after Biden dropped out. Instead, Biden hand-picked his successor, Harris \u2014 a decision Salazar calls a \u201cmistake.\u201d<\/p>\n Salazar writes that he consistently petitioned the White House to create a \u201cborder czar\u201d position, allowing someone in Washington to run point on the interagency response to the immigration crisis. Harris, as vice president, had been tasked with addressing \u201croot causes\u201d of migration, and she devoted her efforts to addressing corruption in Central America. Salazar saw that as insufficient: \u201cBut sadly, her designation in this position was having no effect on migration flows,\u201d he writes. He pressed several White House officials, and even Biden himself, to create the position. The designation never came.<\/p>\n \u201c[Harris] had been placed in charge of getting at the \u2018root causes\u2019 of migration, but many felt she had been ineffective,\u201d Salazar writes, suggesting perhaps she hadn\u2019t been given enough authority or felt that taking more responsibility on the issue would be \u201cpolitical suicide.” \u201cFor whatever reason, she had been unable to help with the border and migration crisis, even though she\u2019d sat next door to the Oval Office for almost four years.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Biden declined to comment, and a spokesperson for Harris did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Salazar\u2019s book arrives at a moment when Americans view President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration enforcement with widespread pessimism. A POLITICO Poll<\/a> in April showed that half of Americans \u2014 including one quarter of his 2024 voters \u2014 said Trump\u2019s mass deportations campaign is too aggressive. But his border policy is still viewed favorably<\/a>, and Americans still broadly trust<\/a> Republicans over Democrats<\/a> on immigration \u2014 a fact some Democrats chalk up to a \u201cBiden hangover.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s likely to kickstart a fresh round of recriminations within the Democratic Party, on the heels of former first lady Jill Biden\u2019s new memoir detailing her husband\u2019s exit from the 2024 campaign. Joe Biden is also expected to release a new book soon, though a spokesperson clarified<\/a> that \u201cthe release date has not been finalized.\u201d<\/p>\n Salazar, in his book, is candid about the failures of the previous administration \u2014 and how those shortcomings provided a window for Trump to ride a wave of voter frustration with immigration enforcement back into office.<\/p>\n His administration colleagues disappointed him on other fronts. In October 2023, when Mayorkas visited Mexico, Salazar notes he pushed him for a consistent, White House-driven message on the border crisis. (\u201cWe used the word \u2018crisis\u2019 freely and often,\u201d Salazar writes, \u201ceven if at that time the White House refused to acknowledge it as such.\u201d) Salazar claims Mayorkas told him: \u201cKen, I have a lot on my plate already. I\u2019m about to be impeached for all this border stuff. The Republicans have it out for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Mayorkas declined to comment about Salazar\u2019s characterization.<\/p>\n Salazar\u2019s consistent efforts, and failures, to garner buy-in from the White House on addressing the border crisis led him to question how seriously his Democratic colleagues took the issue and how well they understood the U.S.\u2019 relationship with Mexico. \u201cI\u2019m not sure this administration knows what they’re doing,\u201d Salazar told his wife at the tail end of Biden\u2019s visit to Mexico in 2023.<\/p>\n Finally, in June 2024, Biden issued an executive order that effectively closed the southern border<\/a>, which Salazar cheered as a success. \u201cThis should have been a moment of vindication \u2014 after all, American voters were demanding action on the border \u2014 but it was too late, and images of an out-of-control border would dominate the closing months of the presidential election,\u201d Salazar writes. (Last month, Mayorkas also implied the Biden administration should have taken that action sooner.<\/a>)<\/p>\n The border was \u201cantiquated, under-resourced, underdeveloped, insecure, and broken,\u201d Salazar adds. \u201cIn this, Trump had been correct.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a warning sign to Salazar\u2019s party both in this year\u2019s midterm cycle and in 2028: Downplay voters\u2019 concerns on immigration and the border at your own peril.<\/p>\n Salazar\u2019s hope is that the Democratic Party\u2019s next standard-bearer will take up his \u201cborderlands\u201d platform, which places the impetus for border enforcement upon all three North American countries. If no one does, though, he isn\u2019t closing the door on a run himself.<\/p>\n Asked three times by POLITICO if he\u2019s considering a presidential bid in 2028, he demurred. \u201cI can\u2019t see the future beyond the reality that we have a November 2026 election, and a lot’s going to happen this year,\u201d he said. \u201cLooking ahead, I want this borderlands platform to be part of that agenda for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Eric Bazail-Eimil contributed.<\/p>\n