Former Secretary of State John Kerry has sharply criticized the Democratic Party over its handling of immigration policy during Joe Biden's presidency, saying it allowed the southern U.S. border to be "under siege," handing political ammunition to Republicans.
Speaking to the BBC, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee said he had warned President Biden that the party had "missed" on the immigration issue for years.
"The first thing any president should say — or anybody in public life — is without a border protected, you don't have a nation," he told the news outlet. "I wish President Biden had been heard more often saying, I'm going to enforce the law."
Kerry went on to acknowledge that President Donald Trump capitalized on Democrats' failure to address border security effectively. "Trump was right," he said. "The problem is we all should have been right."
The comments come amid ongoing political and legal battles over Trump's expanded immigration enforcement policies. Federal agents have conducted aggressive operations in immigrant communities, drawing backlash from Democratic leaders. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass criticized this week actions in her city as a "military operation in an American city," while California Attorney General Rob Bonta denounced them as "cruel and familiar."
While Kerry's recent comments mark a rare alignment with Trump's stance on immigration, this is not the first time he has expressed a degree of agreement with the president's tactics. In a 2024 appearance at Harvard University, Kerry said Trump's unpredictability on the global stage "could be helpful" in negotiations. "It's not a bad thing for [opponents] to worry about you," Kerry said, adding that he hoped Trump would succeed in cutting deals with adversaries like Iran.
Nevertheless, since then Kerry has not hesitated to criticize the Trump administration on other fronts. In a June interview on CNN's "Amanpour", he warned against the belief that Iran's nuclear capability could be erased militarily, emphasizing the long-term risks of escalating conflict. Earlier, in a June 11 interview with ITV News, he condemned Trump's rollback of environmental protections, calling the administration's climate policy "very sad for humanity."
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