Current:Home > FinanceA Quaker who helps migrants says US presidential election will make no difference at the border -Infinite Edge Learning
A Quaker who helps migrants says US presidential election will make no difference at the border
View
Date:2025-04-19 06:12:08
Follow live: Updates from AP’s coverage of the presidential election.
JACUMBA HOT SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — As dawn breaks through low clouds over the high desert, Sam Schultz drives along the knotted dirt roads near the U.S.-Mexico border, looking for migrants to help.
For more than a year now, Schultz, 69, has been been bringing food, water, warm blankets and more to the thousands of migrants he’s found huddled in makeshift camps, waiting to be processed for asylum.
He got involved when the camps showed up just a few miles from his home, Jacumba Hot Springs, California, a sparsely populated area where the rugged terrain makes it hard for people to find sustenance or shelter. As a Christian and a Quaker, he believes he has a responsibility to care for the people around him, and he felt compelled to keep people from suffering.
Sam Schultz fills a paper bowl with oatmeal as a line of asylum-seeking migrants wait, Oct. 24, 2023, near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
“I’m just not going to stand for that,” Schultz said. “If it’s a place where I can do something about it. It’s really that simple.”
Starting in late October of 2023, Schultz figures he fed more than 400 people a day for 90 days straight. Since he started, Schultz said the effort has ballooned, with many volunteers and donations.
While he sees that the border is at the epicenter of one of hottest topics dividing Republicans and Democrats in this year’s presidential elections - immigration - Schultz doesn’t plan to vote for either candidate. He doesn’t think either will make a difference. Schultz believes the heart of the issue is that the wealthy benefit from mass migration, though it is rarely mentioned.
So, instead of entering into the debate, Schultz, a lifelong relief-worker who helped in humanitarian relief efforts in Indonesia in the early 2000s, prefers to focus entirely on helping those he encounters in the desert.
Sam Schultz looks along a border barrier separating Mexico from the United States, Oct. 18, 2024, near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Sam Schultz poses for a portrait at his home, Oct. 29, 2024, near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Sam Schultz hangs a halloween skeleton on ladders used to climb over the border wall, left by asylum-seeking migrants, and collected by Schultz, Oct. 18, 2024, in Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Sam Schultz, right, bumps fists with a Mexican National Guardsman through the border barrier separating Mexico from the United States, Oct. 18, 2024, near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Sam Schultz walks past a makeshift structure made to provide shelter for asylum seeking migrants as they await processing Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Sam Schultz smiles as he talks near his home Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Sam Schultz, left, in grey hat, hands out blankets to a group of asylum-seeking migrants waiting to be processed at a makeshift camp, Feb. 2, 2024, near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Dawn lights the border wall separating Mexico from the United State as Sam Schultz checks encampments for migrants seeking asylum, Oct. 18, 2024, near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Sam Schultz leaves his home with his dogs on his way to check the area for asylum-seeking migrants, Oct. 29, 2024, near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Sam Schultz looks along a border barrier separating Mexico from the United States, Oct. 18, 2024, near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
The number of migrants crossing has slowed along his stretch of the border, which he attributes to a pre-election pause, as well as efforts from by Mexico to stop migrants here.
But he is preparing for what may come next, safeguarding the stockpiles of supplies painstakingly accumulated through donations and help from others.
“I don’t know, how do you stop?” he said. “That’s the thing. Once you start doing something like this. I really don’t know how you have an off switch.”
Sam Schultz walks back towards his home, Oct. 29, 2024, near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
AP has photo and video journalists in every region of the U.S. In the run up to the U.S. election, the team is collaborating on a series of visual stories about U.S. voters in their local communities.
veryGood! (336)
Related
- Could your smelly farts help science?
- Sacramento mayor trades barbs with DA over 'unprecedented' homeless crisis
- Richard Sherman to join Skip Bayless on 'Undisputed,' per report
- Candidates jump into Louisiana elections, and many races have no incumbent
- Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
- 'Killers of a Certain Age' and more great books starring women over 40
- Below Deck Down Under Shocker: 2 Crewmembers Are Fired for Inappropriate Behavior
- Hawaii wildfires burn homes and force evacuations, while strong winds complicate the fight
- Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
- Tired while taking antibiotics? Telling the difference between illness and side effects
Ranking
- Finally, good retirement news! Southwest pilots' plan is a bright spot, experts say
- Who is sneaking fentanyl across the southern border? Hint: it's not the migrants
- Who is sneaking fentanyl across the southern border? Hint: it's not the migrants
- 21 Only Murders in the Building Gifts Every Arconiac Needs
- Realtor group picks top 10 housing hot spots for 2025: Did your city make the list?
- Bill Clinton’s presidential center expanding, will add Hillary Clinton’s personal archives
- Oregon Capitol construction quietly edges $90 million over budget
- Mega Millions jackpot grows to $1.58 billion before drawing
Recommendation
Juan Soto to be introduced by Mets at Citi Field after striking record $765 million, 15
Bachelor Nation's Kaitlyn Bristowe Opens Up About Her Grief After Jason Tartick Breakup
Raven-Symoné Says Dad Suggested Strongly She Get Breast Reduction, Liposuction Before Age 18
In Mexico, accusations of ‘communism’ and ‘fascism’ mark school textbook debate
Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning
More arrest warrants could be issued after shocking video shows Montgomery, Alabama, riverfront brawl
SafeSport suspends ex-US Olympic snowboarding coach Peter Foley after sexual misconduct probe
Why Ohio’s Issue 1 proposal failed, and how the AP called the race