Heartbreaking images reveal the tragedy of the migrant crisis after a Salvadoran man and his 23-month-old daughter drowned in the Rio Grande while the child's mother watched on.
Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, 25, and his daughter Valeria were found face down in shallow water on the Mexico side of the river across from Brownsville, Texas on Monday morning.
Photos from the scene show his black shirt hiked up to his chest with the girl's head tucked inside. Her arm was draped around his neck suggesting she clung to him in her final moments.
Martínez's 21-year-old wife Tania Vanessa Ávalos said she was present and looked on in horror as the tragedy unfolded, when Ramírez tried to cross the border illegally by swimming across the river near Matamoros, Mexico.
Ávalos said the family left El Salvador on April 3 and that they spent the last two months in Mexico at a migrant camp waiting for an appointment to apply for asylum to enter the U.S.
A Tamaulipas government official said the family arrived in Matamoros early Sunday and went to the U.S. Consulate to try to get a date to request asylum.
It's not clear what happened to the family at the U.S. Consulate, but a shelter director said only about 40 to 45 asylum interviews were being conducted in Matamoros each week, while somewhere in the neighborhood of 800-1,700 names were on a waiting list.
Frustrated by the wait, Ramírez tried to swim across the river with his daughter on Sunday afternoon.
Once across, he set her on the U.S. bank of the river and started back for his wife, but the little girl panicked as he left and jumped into the river to follow him, Ávalos said.
Martínez returned and was able to grab Valeria, but the current swept them both away, according to remarks Ávalos gave to police at the scene.
Ramirez had contacted his sister, Wendy, via Facebook on Sunday afternoon and informed her of his decision to cross the river.
Migrant father-daughter washed away on the Rio Grande
Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, 25, and his daughter Valeria were found face down in shallow water on the Mexico side of the river across from Brownsville, Texas on Monday.
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