Woman watched her husband, daughter drown at Mexican border

International Desk: The bodies of Oscar Alberto Martínez and his 23-month-old daughter, Angie Valeria, lie face down in murky waters littered with reeds and discarded beer bottles. Their heads are wrapped in a black T-shirt, and her tiny right arm is draped over his shoulders.

The shocking image captured Monday was a grim reminder of the dangerous journey migrants take to get to the United States.

The pair from El Salvador drowned Sunday in the Rio Grande as they were crossing from Mexico into Texas near Brownsville. They actually had made it to the Texas side initially, and Martinez placed his child there before turning around to get his wife, a journalist says.

But when Angie Valeria saw her father swimming away, she jumped in after him, according to Julia Le Duc, the photographer who captured the image of the pair.
The father clung to the little girl in red pants and black shoes, but a strong current swept over and drowned them, Le Duc wrote for Mexican newspaper La Jornada.

The newspaper talked to the man's widow, Tania, who said she saw her husband and child carried away Sunday. Their bodies were found Monday on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, near Matamoros, across the river from Brownsville.

The haunting image offers a glimpse into the suffering asylum seekers face on the US-Mexico border.

The family had been in a migrant camp in Matamoros since Sunday, hoping for an appointment to receive political asylum from the US, the newspaper said, citing Martinez's wife.

They'd been in Mexico for two months in the scorching heat -- temperatures climbed to 113 degrees Fahrenheit at times -- and the family decided to cross the river out of desperation, La Jornada reported. The victim's wife said they had obtained a humanitarian visa from the Mexican government.

Ports of entry along the border have long been overwhelmed by the surging asylum claims, Customs and Border Protection officials have said.

But US policies that make it harder for those seeking asylum to turn themselves in at ports of entry are pushing more migrants to take deadly risks and cross in more dangerous areas, advocates have said, warning the number of deaths at the border will increase.

Turnbacks and long waits also often push asylum seekers into crossing the border illegally, according to a September report by the Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General.

This new image is reminiscent of the iconic 2015 photo of a drowned 3-year-old Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, whose body washed up on a beach in Turkey. The photo shocked and moved UN and European leaders and stirred discussion over immigration policies.
Source: cnn


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