GRAPHIC WARNING: Nancy Pelosi gets emotional as she discusses the drowning of Oscar and Valeria, who were photographed after they died trying to reach U.S. soil
MATAMOROS, Mexico - A harrowing photo of a Salvadoran migrant and his young daughter who drowned in the Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border became the focus on Wednesday of a U.S. political debate over President Donald Trump’s asylum policies.
In turn, Trump blamed the Democrats, whom he said were blocking his government’s attempts at closing “loopholes” in U.S. law that encourage migrants to apply for U.S. asylum. U.S. border patrol agents have apprehended 664,000 people along the southern border so far this year, a 144 percent increase from last year, said Brian Hastings, chief of law enforcement operations for the U.S. Border Patrol. “The system is overwhelmed,” he said.
The controls have contributed to growing numbers of migrants crossing the border illegally to hand themselves in to authorities and ask for asylum. Migrant rights activists say such limits on people’s access to asylum can put them in harm’s way, while driving migration underground and squeezing it into new routes.
The photo of Martinez and his toddler daughter — face down in the mud on the river bank, with her arm draped around his neck — has gone viral on social media around the world. As with the photograph of Kurdi, the image of the drowned father and daughter has triggered debate over the ethics of publishing such shocking photographs, with some commentators arguing that Western media was less likely to publish similar images of European or U.S. citizens.
“This happens every day along the border from California to Texas, at least one or two people a day,” Larraenza said.
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