ALAMOSA — U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, attorney, and statesman spoke to a warm and receptive crowd on Saturday where he presented a strong message centered around the importance of unity and partnerships. 

Salazar, whose familial roots in the region go back 14 centuries, brings to the conversation a highly distinguished history that, prior to his presidential appointment as ambassador in 2021, included serving as the Secretary of Interior under President Obama, a U.S. Senator and Attorney General of Colorado.   

The ambassador began by praising the election of Claudia Sheinbaum, the first woman to be sworn in as president of Mexico last week. “This has never happened before – a woman as president of Mexico. I’ve never been more optimistic,” he said. 

While that optimism was still fresh in people’s minds, Salazar began speaking about the concept of North American Integration, a deliberate process of the economic and political integration of Canada, the United States and Mexico. That integration is evident in agreements already in existence such as the United States Canada Mexico Agreement (USMCA), which replaced North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and was created with mutual agreement by and benefit for  all three countries.   

Focusing on the relationship between the United States and Mexico, the vision of such an agreement, he said, is to exemplify to the world what it looks like when two countries are united to do good for the people in both countries. 

At that point, his conversation with the audience seemed to evolve naturally into his take on immigration, one of the most controversial issues in current political discourse.  

After citing figures that immigration is now at a level the lowest it has been in five years, Salazar posited that the border “has been neglected. The border was born out of war and, because of that, it’s never been developed. It’s never worked.”  

Salazar, who spent significant time working on immigration issues while in the Senate and continues to do so as ambassador to Mexico, said the answer involves three steps. 

Begin with looking at the reason people are leaving their home countries, he said. “Do you think migrants want to leave?” He related a tragic tale of a woman and her three-year-old child who were being smuggled into the United States by the cartel to see her husband in Chicago when there was an accident, and she was unable to continue the journey.  

“There is a moral imperative here,” Salazar said. “This is why we have to succeed.” 

The second step was to create legal pathways to coming to the United States. “If people are presented with a legal pathway or involvement with the cartel, they will pick the legal pathway.”  In a show of how much he supports the H2A program which allows immigration for seasonal workers, he said that, since being appointed ambassador of Mexico he has issued more than 360,000 such visas.  

“People come here legally, they work hard and make money and then return home to their family,” he said. “It’s a good program.” 

Salazar then addressed enforcement at the border. “We need to know who’s coming in and out,” he said.  And that naturally brought up a discussion of the security agreement between the United States and Mexico.  

Citing that more progress has been made on addressing cartels in the last two years than at any time before, Salazar spoke of how Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the Sinaloa cartel’s alleged co-founder, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of former boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, were recently taken into custody and are in prison awaiting trial.  

“Who do you think did that?” Salazar said. “Sure [the United States] helped but that operation was done by Mexico. Mexico did that,” he said, adding that the operation also “took the lives of 12 young, Mexican soldiers.” 

Education is also a key component of unity between the two countries, Salazar said, which led to a discussion of Adams State University President David Tandberg’s vision to have greater co-operation and exchange between students in Mexico and students at ASU. 

 Ambassador Salazar then turned his focus to the San Luis Valley where he made his strongest case for the power to be found in unity. 

Describing the situation where 99% of the residents of the Valley stood in opposition to the American Water Development Inc. (AWDI) attempt to export water, he then talked about what happened next:  the designation of the Great Sand Dunes as a National Park and Preserve with language explicitly built into the bill that protected the water that lies under the dunes.  

“People came together. They were united and that led to the creation of the national park. Republicans, Democrats, right, left, 99% of the valley was united behind that effort.”  Salazar then went on to ask what could be viewed as the most profound question in a conversation with the audience that was already enlightening. 

“Do we have it in us to unite for a greater purpose?” he asked. “Will people of the Valley – Hispanics, Mormons, non-Hispanics and non-Mormons - have it in them to unite in this way again?” 

He then cited the principles that guided his family – eight children from an impoverished background, all of whom went on to achieve great things. 

“You have to believe in something,” he said. “You have to believe. And what we believed in was hard work, education and taking care of your neighbors.”  

Salazar then thanked all who came before, all of the ancestors and those who were in the audience that day.