Ceuta migrant crisis tensions overshadow annual public celebration

CEUTA, Spain (AP) — The city of Ceuta, a tiny speck of Spanish territory perched on the northern African coast, normally celebrates its Seot. 2 annual official holiday alone, ignored by the mainland.

But not this year, after Ceuta became the epicenter of Spain's worst border crisis in living memory.

In lieu of festivities, thousands of people in Ceuta took to the streets to protest the current state of their city on Wednesday evening, demanding solutions to the crisis and blaming Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for his government's handling of it.

They protested a humanitarian crisis that is generating tensions in the tiny exclave, on the mainland and even spilling over into other countries.

Thousands of demonstrators also took to the streets in Madrid, and other cities across Spain.

Last month, about 72,000 people poured into the small Spanish territory neighboring Morocco, with at least 90 dying in the effort to reach Europe.

Most of the migrants quickly returned or were ushered back over the border, but around 5,000, including 1,200 minors, remain in Ceuta weeks later, according to the national government. Difficult questions likewise linger over what caused the mass crossing that the government says was fueled by an online campaign on social media.

The sudden influx of tens of thousands of migrants into Ceuta, which has a population of about 84,000, put a huge strain on resources and angered many residents. Local authorities said that Spain's central government ignored warning signs before the border was breached.

“What happened to us was not a migratory crisis,” Ceuta's regional leader, Juan Jesús Vivas, said during an institutional act on Wednesday to mark the holiday. “What happened was the violation of Spain's territorial integrity.”

Vivas is a member of Spain's leading conservative Popular Party which, with Spain's far-right Vox party, has latched onto the Ceuta crisis and made it the focus of a political fight to oust the left-wing government in Madrid.

The organizer of Wednesday's protests in Madrid and more than 200 other towns is the officially nonpartisan Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces. But the protests are being promoted by PP and Vox, which is strongly against irregular migration.

Spain’s minister of territorial policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, told Spanish National Radio on that the protests were politically motivated.

“This is not to show support for the city of Ceuta or its residents; it is to attack the government of Spain,” Torres said.

The government has denied claims it has left Ceuta behind. This week, it earmarked 309 million euros ($357 million) to aid the city's social services, with special attention to housing migrants, its economy and security.

Many in Spain have asked if Morocco's government could have done more to prevent the frontier breakthrough.

Sánchez, however, has repeatedly defended the Moroccan authorities, saying they were swift to help in the return of most of the migrants. On Monday, the Spanish leader — without presenting any evidence to the public — alleged that other nations spread disinformation to cause the crisis.

“There is no information from any of our intelligence services that points to the participation of Moroccan authorities,” Sánchez told Cadena Ser radio on Monday.

Sánchez, who faces an election next year, said that a misinterpretation of a Supreme Court ruling and disinformation spread on social media encouraged people to rush the border.

The prime minister has also accused social media accounts linked to Russia and Israel and right-wing groups of exploiting and amplifying the Ceuta crisis after it happened on July 30 and 31. Israel and Russia have refuted that claim.

“Without facts, without materials backed up by numbers, dates, names there is simply nothing to talk about,” Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters.

Sánchez’s government didn't provide examples of Russian or Israeli disinformation campaigns, instead citing internal reports from its Foreign Affairs Ministry and the European Commission's diplomatic service.

Many migrants, including unaccompanied minors, remain sleeping in the streets and camped on a beach despite authorities’ efforts to shelter, register and deport those who are eligible back to Morocco.

“We’re suffering and we want to get to Europe or find a solution right now. Here, we’re all sleeping on the beach and having a really hard time,” Moroccan Nebil Tazi told The Associated Press. “We’ve been waiting for a month, waiting for a solution here, but there isn’t one.”

Vivas, Ceuta's leading official, said that the focus should be on getting the autonomous city back to “normality,” as he vowed to continue to pursue the “truth” behind the crisis.

He urged Spain's central government to reinforce and strengthen the border with Morocco instead of depending on cooperation with its neighbor.

“If we don't do this, there will always be someone tempted to use migration as a tool for political ends,” Vivas said.

In a recorded video message published Wednesday, Sánchez said his government was putting all resources so Ceuta's residents could return to tranquility.

The Ceuta holiday commemorates Sept. 2, 1415, when the first Portuguese governor disembarked a few weeks after Portuguese soldiers claimed the terrain. It then passed into Spanish hands in 1580.

The city normally celebrates the day with an official ceremony, musical performances and cultural programs.

Joseph Wilson reported and Renata Brito contributed to this report from Barcelona.

Migrants stand at El Trampolín beach in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Francis González)

Migrants take a shower near their tents at El Trampolín beach in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Francis González)

Migrants stand near their tents at El Trampolín beach in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Francis González)

A migrant sits on a rock at El Trampolín beach in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Francis González)

A migrant sits next to his tent at El Trampolín beach in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Francis González)

EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — Adam Hamilton has spent decades trying to bring people to Jesus as founder of the nation’s largest United Methodist church. Now he wants to bring Kansas voters to the polls as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.

A first-time candidate, Hamilton faces an unusual balancing act between political ambition and spiritual obligation. His pastoral role has given him rare prominence for a Democrat in a state where Republicans have won every Senate race for nearly a century, and some in his party are hoping for an upset victory over incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall.

But conservatives are also trying to use Hamilton’s religious leadership against him. They suggest that his sermons prove he’s too liberal for Kansas or even that he’s a heretic for suggesting that non-Christians have a path to salvation after death.

Marshall said in an interview that Hamilton is “too woke for Kansas."

Hamilton isn’t turning the other cheek. If Jesus were standing before them now, he said, “Roger Marshall would call him ‘woke.’”

Only a few ordained ministers have served as senators over the past 100 years and just one — current Democrat Raphael Warnock of Georgia — remained an active pastor. If elected, Hamilton plans to continue as senior pastor at his Church of the Resurrection in the Kansas City area, preaching 12 to 18 times a year.

As Hamilton tries to win over center-right churchgoers as well as secular liberals, he’s promising that he wouldn’t use his perch in Washington to evangelize. He’s on unpaid leave, going 11 weeks without giving a sermon this summer, although he peppers his remarks with biblical references, discusses Jesus’ teachings with voters and spends several hours weekly on pastoral duties such as hospital visits.

“I need that interaction with people and the caring for people,” he said after a meet-and-greet at a coffee shop in Emporia, a university town of 24,000 that’s smaller than his congregation 110 miles (180 kilometers) to the northwest.

Hamilton, 61, built his church from a few members meeting in a funeral home chapel in 1990 into a 25,000-member congregation with nine locations across the Kansas City area. He's demonstrated an ability to raise money and has gained national attention by writing more than 30 books, mostly on Christian theology.

Hamilton describes himself as a centrist, running partly on “bringing people together.” His congregation, he notes, is nearly evenly split between Democrats, Republicans and independents.

Republican-leaning Kansas has a sizable bloc of moderate voters, protects abortion rights and regularly elects Democratic governors. But Democrats haven't come within 10 points of winning a Senate race in more than 50 years, and they haven't won one since 1932.

Marshall, 66, is focused on rallying rural conservatives, a strategy that perennially works for Republicans. A fifth-generation farm kid who became an obstetrician, the senator is fluent in agriculture policy. He jibed that suburbanite Hamilton “doesn't know a heifer from a steer.”

Marshall also warned that the Senate could fall under Democratic control if Hamilton wins the race.

“His party is too crazy for Kansas,” Marshall said.

This year's race is unusual because of attacks from the Christian right branding Hamilton a heretic.

At issue is a 2022 sermon, reposted on X after Hamilton won the Democratic primary in August. Hamilton cited New Testament passages to argue that non-Christians can receive “the saving grace of Jesus" after death, avoiding eternal torment in Hell.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas declared that Hamilton had rejected “the central tenets of Christianity,” quoting a verse in the Gospel of John where Jesus declares, "No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Marshall thanked Cruz for raising the issue, suggesting the sermon was "one of hundreds” of examples of Hamilton being out of step with Kansans.

Hamilton acknowledged that some Christians agree with Cruz — but cited other prominent Christians who might share his own view, including Methodist founder John Wesley and "Chronicles of Narnia” author C.S. Lewis.

“If he’s going to call me a heretic, he’s not the first," Hamilton said. "He won’t be the last.”

Hamilton also has faced skepticism from Democrats wary of mixing government with religion.

Republican conservatives routinely highlight their faith, suggesting that God wanted them to seek office and profusely thank God after winning.

This year during Lent — the 40 days of self-reflection and repentance before Easter — Hamilton said he skipped a meal each day and prayed about entering the Senate race.

“I’m never 100% sure about the will of God, so I tell people I am 87.2% sure I am supposed to be doing this,” he said. "The Kansas voters will decide whether I’m supposed to win, but I feel like I was being called to step into the arena.”

In Emporia, Hamilton said that as a senator, he'd "fight for the rights of all people, whether they have any faith or not.”

“I’m not running for the Senate to make everybody in this country Christian or United Methodist,” he said.

Nolan Guyer, a 72-year-old Navy veteran and retired nuclear plant operator, said he initially worried about voting for a minister, but Hamilton won him over enough that he donated to the pastor's campaign.

“I don't think it's the government's business to teach morals, and that is a preacher's job,” Guyer said.

Republican political action committees have attacked Hamilton as so radical on climate change that he urged his congregation to repent for eating beef. They base that allegation on a misleading stitching together of two parts of a 2020 sermon, with one clip showing Hamilton calling Christians “to repentance” for not protecting God’s creation and a second, earlier clip of him saying that “maybe changing your diet” is among personal actions that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Another ad claimed that Hamilton's church helped pay for a drag queen story hour for children — a claim his campaign denies.

Marshall blamed Hamilton for a split in the United Methodist Church over allowing LGBTQ+ clergy, something it did in 2024. While Hamilton did support that change — at least since 2019 — he also had worked to prevent a split by backing a plan for a local option on whether to ordain or marry LGBTQ+ people.

Hamilton said his views on human sexuality and same-sex marriage evolved gradually, as he came to know gay and lesbian people in his congregation. His church now has a Queer Inclusive Collective ministry and participates in Pride events.

“One small part of my ministry has been trying to make sure that people who felt alienated from the church and pushed away knew that Christ welcomed them and they were loved by our congregation,” Hamilton said.

One of Hamilton's assertions, that he is “running on decency,” resonated with Jann Briggs. She's a retired teacher from Reading, a small town where the Methodist church is across the street from the Miracle Cafe.

Briggs and several friends came to Hamilton's event in Emporia with a copy of his latest book, “Holy Spirit: God's Presence and Power at Work in Us.” He signed it for them.

“Finally, somebody who's speaking the right words,” Briggs said.

Hamilton is also focusing on affordability, a key issue for Democrats this year. He has criticized Republican cuts to federal programs for the poor, such as food assistance and Medicaid coverage.

“I just want to know, when did it become 'woke’ to care for your neighbor?” he asked.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

FILE - Sen. Roger Marshall R-Kan. and Sen. Tommy Tuberville R-Ala. speak to reporters outside of the U.S. Supreme Court, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

FILE - Rev. Adam Hamilton wipes his eyes during a prayer at an Interfaith Service of Unity and Hope at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kan., Thursday, April 17, 2014, to honor shooting victims at the center and a nearby Jewish retirement complex. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner, Pool, File)

FILE - The Rev. Adam Hamilton, Senior Pastor, United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kan., delivers the sermon during the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral attended by President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - Rep. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., stands for the national anthem in front of photo of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett while attending a Concerned Women for America event outside a gun store in Kansas City, Kan. Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

FILE - Democratic U.S. senatorial candidate Adam Hamilton of Kansas, listens to administrators at the Health Partnership Clinic as they discuss funding issues the low-income family medical facility is facing on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Olathe. Kan. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley, File)