A photo of a drowned father and his two-year-old daughter at the US-Mexican border surfaced on Wednesday. The two died attempting to cross the Rio Grande that divides both countries.
The image, which showed the girl still holding on to her father, lying face-down in the water, was taken by journalist Julia Le Duc and published by Mexican newspaper La Jornada, and it has served to highlight the high-risk migrants face on the perilous journey to the US.
Authorities found the bodies of 25-year-old Oscar Ramirez and his daughter Valeria on Monday, after a 12-hour search. The mother, Tania Vanessa Avalos, who attempted to cross the river too and survived, recounted the tragic story to authorities and media outlets.
La Jornada reported that the family had been in Mexico for two months on a humanitarian visa they obtained at the Guatemalan border. On Sunday, they went to a point of entry to request asylum on the Mexican city of Matamoros, which borders the US city of Brownsville, on the easternmost part of the border.
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As the Mexican border office was closed on Sundays, the family then set out on foot along the river, until they reached a point where they tried to cross. Frustration with the inability to process his family’s case appears to be what motivated the father to attempt the dangerous crossing.
Ramirez swam to the US side of the river bank of the river and left his daughter there, to head back to the Mexican side and help his wife cross. But the child jumped into the water as he was on his way.
The father rushed back, managing to grab his daughter and hold on to her, but a strong current swept them away.
A US border patrol agent looks over the Rio Grande river at the border between US and Mexico, in Roma, Texas, US, May 11, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria
‘The American dream’
Rosa Ramirez, the mother of the 25-year-old father of one, told the Salvadoran daily El Diario de Hoy that she begged the family not to leave, but could not get them to “give up their hopes of the American dream.”
“He put her in his shirt and I imagine he told himself: ‘I’ve come this far’ and decided to go with her,” the mother and grandmother told AP of her son’s final moments.
Her daughter Wendy Ramirez told El Diario de Hoy that her brother had grown anxious about the asylum case. “They said they were scared of how the situation of migrants was unfolding, under Trump’s pressure. That is why they decided to cross,” she said, adding that their original intention was to hand themselves over the US immigration authorities.
Just days before, US President Donald Trump had announced a plan of mass deportations, which he halted for two weeks, while he negotiated with Democrats the future of asylum policies. Since he was elected, Trump has focused on deterring migrant crossings, increasing deportations and generally lowering migration levels in the US.
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The White House has not commented on the specific case of the Salvadoran family, but on Tuesday, Trump blamed Democrats for wanting “open borders” and said that migrants were flocking to the US because of its good economy.
Too bad the Dems in Congress won’t do anything at all about Border Security. They want Open Borders, which means crime. But we are getting it done, including building the Wall! More people than ever before are coming because the USA Economy is so good, the best in history.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2019
El Salvador mourns
President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador expressed sorrow for the deaths and began procedures for repatriating the bodies. “Someday we will finish building a country where migrating will be an option, not an obligation,” Bukele said in a statement.
He acknowledged that poverty, a lack of opportunities, inequality and the desire to reunite with family, were factors driving many Salvadorans north.
In a press conference, foreign minister Alexandra called on local media outlets to do more to highlight the risks of emigrating. “I implore you to not expose your children and yourselves to this risk,” Hill said, in an appeal to her fellow citizens.
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“We ask president Donald Trump to let president Nayib Bukele show that migration from this country will stop, but what has been going on for 20 years cannot be stopped in just two weeks,” she warned, adding that her country was working closely with the US Congress and with Mexico’s government to solve the crisis.
Mexico’s president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador lamented the death of Ramirez and his daughter during a daily press briefing on Monday, according to La Jornada.
But he cautioned that while authorities could legally stop migrants who seek to cross, he added that it was “not a legal issue.”
“We have to deter the migrant flow, but respecting human rights, focusing on the root causes,” Lopez Obrador said.
Deadly border crossing
According to the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a total of 283 migrant-crossing deaths were recorded at the border in 2018. The figures represent deaths that occur on the US side of the border, not those of the Mexican side, as was the case of the Ramirez family.
The highest number of deaths recorded from 1998 to 2018 was 471 in 2013. CBP’s data shows that the year with the lowest number of deaths on the border was 1999. As such, a clear trend is not discernible, as figures seem to rise and fall each year.
Much of the border is covered by desert and the Rio Grande. Many migrants attempt to cross the river, which is said to cover roughly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) of the 1,933 miles of the border.
While it appears calm, the Rio Grande is a fast-moving river and through it flow dangerous currents. Migrants rights organisations say the number of deaths on the US border is higher than CBP’s data shows, as many go missing and statistics on the Mexican side are harder to come by.