OCOTILLO, Calif. _ When news about President Donald Trump flickers across their television, Laura and John Hunter know that one of them needs to leave the room.
They'd rather not quarrel about how Trump is handling an issue they both care about deeply: immigration.
John is part of a conservative political dynasty: His older brother, Duncan Lee Hunter, represented California in Congress from 1981 to 2009 and pushed _ successfully _ for the "triple fencing" that separates the cities of Tijuana and San Diego. His nephew is Rep. Duncan Duane Hunter, who succeeded his father and was indicted on corruption charges in August of last year.
John believes in Trump. Laura is a Mexican immigrant who dismisses Trump as a "despicable human being."
But there's one mission that continues to bind them.
About once a month, they travel into the desert east of San Diego with a handful of volunteers who are focused on one of the grimmest aspects of U.S. immigration policy _ the deaths of those who are trying to cross the border illegally. The volunteers fill and maintain more than 100 water stations scattered along the sun-bleached California borderlands.
The Hunters' journeys into the desert are one of the main reasons their marriage has survived the dramatic collision of emotions that the 45th American president inspires in each of them. They love each other _ but the last 2 { years have tested them.
"We both have strong feelings for each other, but also I have a strong character and he does too," Laura said. "This situation with Trump hasn't helped."
John said he doesn't see a conflict between his desire to save the lives of people who are trying to cross the border illegally and his support for a president who has described the same people as rapists, criminals and gang members. "People were dying during the Clinton era, in the Bush era, in the Barack era," he said. "They are still dying in the Trump era."
And they still desperately need water.
The couple met 19 years ago in the low desert of Imperial County, shortly after John had launched his ambitious Water Station project. He was, he said, apolitical on the topic of illegal immigration.
The barrier promoted by his brother had resulted in a decrease in illegal immigration in the San Ysidro area of San Diego, but immigrants who were desperately trying to cross the border were pushed to the east, into unforgiving desert terrain. Thousands of them have died in eastern California and Arizona in the last 25 years.
Laura had read about the venture in a local newspaper and signed on as a volunteer. Their political differences were immediately apparent, but they both opposed abortion, and the water stations, with their potential to save lives, seemed to be an extension of that belief. After a couple of years, their friendship became something more; they started dating and eventually married.
John, 63, who is lanky and wears muted, buttoned-down shirts, has a voice with just a hint of Jimmy Stewart's Midwestern accent. Laura, 72, favors bright clothing, red lipstick and proudly embraces the plume of silver-and-black wavy hair that frames her chiseled face.
He's a toy inventor who earned a doctorate in particle physics and worked on satellite technology at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She's a retired elementary school teacher who raised three girls _ mostly on her own _ along the border regions of San Diego and Mexicali, Mexico. Their Escondido home is notable for its bright walls and Oaxacan pottery and paintings. Some rooms could be easily confused for a Mexican art museum.
They've been a couple for many years, with established routines. Sometimes he cooks crepes for her on the weekend. She serves him iced tea on hot days. Their children _ from different marriages _ are grown, and they dote on Fifi, their Maltese poodle.
In their own way, the Hunters reflect the diversity of the Water Station group, which consists of about 10 core volunteers who come together twice a month in Ocotillo, a tiny community in Imperial County. A few are apolitical. At least four _ including John Hunter _ lean to the right. The rest _ mostly the younger ones _ are left-leaning activists.
"On this one topic _ saving lives in the desert _ you could say we are all liberals," John said. "I just consider it being normal. When temps hit 115, people focus on the basics of survival, and petty differences are ignored."
From the start, Duncan Hunter, 71, supported his brother's water project and even helped him obtain permits to set up stations on land operated by the Bureau of Land Management. There is no contradiction, he says, between his support for his brother's mission to save immigrant lives and his desire for tough border enforcement.
"The fact that you don't have a secure border leads to people coming to the border and dying of dehydration or exposure in the desert," the former congressman said. "If you had 200 high school kids a year drowning in a canal, what would you do? You'd fence off the canal. ... You keep people from dying."
