After a disturbing photo of a migrant father and his infant daughter who drowned during an attempt to enter the United States across the Mexican border went viral, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, 26 June, said that he hated seeing the photo.
“I hate it,” Trump said about the viral photo of the Salvadoran man and the two-year-old girl in the Rio Grande river.
The photo, published in a Mexican newspaper, captured the man and his 23-month-old daughter as they lay face down in shallow water along the bank of the Rio Grande, his black shirt hiked up to his chest with the girl tucked inside.
Her arm was draped around his neck, suggesting she clung to him in her final moments.
Trump Blames Democrats
Trump argued that the deaths would not have happened if the Democrats were not dragging their feet on congressional legislation to toughen security at the border, AP reported.
“I know it could stop immediately if the Democrats change the law. They have to change the laws. And then that father, who probably was this wonderful guy, with his daughter, things like that wouldn’t happen.”US President Donald Trump
Pope Francis Expresses Sadness
Pope Francis on Wednesday expressed sadness over the fate of the father and young daughter, AP reported.
"With immense sadness, the Holy Father has seen the images of the father and his baby daughter who drowned in the Rio Grande River while trying to cross the border between Mexico and the United States," the Vatican's interim spokesman, Alessandro Gisotti, said in a statement.
"The pope is profoundly saddened by their death, and is praying for them and for all migrants who have lost their lives while seeking to flee war and misery," he said.
They Died in Each Other’s Arms: Mother of Man
The mother of the man said she finds the photograph hard to look at but takes some comfort in knowing "they died in each other's arms”, reported AP.
"It's tough, it's kind of shocking, that image," the 25-year-old man's mother, Rosa Ramírez, told AP. "But at the same time, it fills me with tenderness. I feel so many things, because at no time did he let go of her."
"You can see how he protected her," she said. "They died in each other's arms,” she added.
(With Inputs from NDTV and AP)
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