By Chris Robertson, news reporter
The deaths of a father and his infant daughter whose bodies were pictured face down in a river after they tried to get to the US have sparked outrage.
:: Warning distressing images below
The tragedy comes amid a recent spate of other deaths on the US-Mexico border, as Central American migrants succumb to the dangerous conditions along the route.
Harrowing photographs of the pair from El Salvador show the little girl holding onto her father as their bodies lie side-by-side in shallow water along the bank of the Rio Grande.
The man's black shirt is up around to his chest with the child tucked inside.
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Her arm is draped around his neck and it appears she clung close to him in the final minutes of their lives.
They have been identified as Oscar Alberto Martnez Ramrez and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria.
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According to local Mexican paper Le Duc, Mr Ramrez had swam the river with his daughter and then left her on the US side to go back for his wife.
However Valeria panicked and tried to reach her father. But sadly both were swept away by the current.
A frustrated Mr Ramirez had reportedly decided to swim with his daughter because the family was unable to present themselves to US authorities and request asylum.
Martnez's mother, back in El Salvador, Rosa Ramrez, has spoken with her daughter-in-law since the tragedy.
Ms Ramrez said: "When the girl jumped in is when he tried to reach her, but when he tried to grab the girl, he went in further … and he couldn't get out.
"He put her in his shirt, and I imagine he told himself, 'I've come this far' and decided to go with her."
Ms Ramrez said her son and his family left El Salvador on 3 April and spent about two months at a shelter in Tapachula, near Mexico's border with Guatemala.
"I begged them not to go, but he wanted to scrape together money to build a home," she said. "They hoped to be there a few years and save up for the house."
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke, from the border city of El Paso in Texas, tweeted: "Trump is responsible for these deaths."
Foreign police analyst Rula Jebreal, who is a visiting professor at Miami university, tweeted: "Picture of a dad and his baby drowned in Rio Grande, her arm draped around his neck… it highlights migrants' travesty.
"As Trump brutalises and tortures kids for political gain…Republicans' remaining collective morality dies."
The spate of migrant deaths comes as the head of the US border protection, or ICE, resigned.
Although he never gave a reason, John Sanders left the role on Tuesday.
He said in a recent interview that the department's problems were to do with a lack of money, and he called on congress to pass a $4.5bn (£3.55bn) bill to address the so-called border crisis.
Democrats in the US House of Representatives have already approved the humanitarian aid but the bill faces a tough route through the upper chamber, the Republican-controlled Senate, where there is an expected vote on Wednesday.
President Trump confirmed he did not seek Mr Sanders' resignation and added he did not think he had ever met him.
Mr Trump's hardline stance on immigration has come under intense scrutiny recently, as conditions inside border patrol facilities were found to be poor, with inadequate food and a lack of medical care.
At a migrant centre in Clint, Texas, lawyers found several children had flu, a two-year-old without a nappy was being watched over by two older children and many of the people there were separated from their families.
They also saw children in soiled clothing, covered in urine and faeces, with many of them not having washed since they entered the facility weeks ago.
By Chris Robertson, news reporter
The deaths of a father and his infant daughter whose bodies were pictured face down in a river after they tried to get to the US have sparked outrage.
:: Warning distressing images below
The tragedy comes amid a recent spate of other deaths on the US-Mexico border, as Central American migrants succumb to the dangerous conditions along the route.
Harrowing photographs of the pair from El Salvador show the little girl holding onto her father as their bodies lie side-by-side in shallow water along the bank of the Rio Grande.
The man's black shirt is up around to his chest with the child tucked inside.
Advertisement
Her arm is draped around his neck and it appears she clung close to him in the final minutes of their lives.
They have been identified as Oscar Alberto Martnez Ramrez and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria.
More from World
According to local Mexican paper Le Duc, Mr Ramrez had swam the river with his daughter and then left her on the US side to go back for his wife.
However Valeria panicked and tried to reach her father. But sadly both were swept away by the current.
A frustrated Mr Ramirez had reportedly decided to swim with his daughter because the family was unable to present themselves to US authorities and request asylum.
Martnez's mother, back in El Salvador, Rosa Ramrez, has spoken with her daughter-in-law since the tragedy.
Ms Ramrez said: "When the girl jumped in is when he tried to reach her, but when he tried to grab the girl, he went in further … and he couldn't get out.
"He put her in his shirt, and I imagine he told himself, 'I've come this far' and decided to go with her."
Ms Ramrez said her son and his family left El Salvador on 3 April and spent about two months at a shelter in Tapachula, near Mexico's border with Guatemala.
"I begged them not to go, but he wanted to scrape together money to build a home," she said. "They hoped to be there a few years and save up for the house."
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke, from the border city of El Paso in Texas, tweeted: "Trump is responsible for these deaths."
Foreign police analyst Rula Jebreal, who is a visiting professor at Miami university, tweeted: "Picture of a dad and his baby drowned in Rio Grande, her arm draped around his neck… it highlights migrants' travesty.
"As Trump brutalises and tortures kids for political gain…Republicans' remaining collective morality dies."
The spate of migrant deaths comes as the head of the US border protection, or ICE, resigned.
Although he never gave a reason, John Sanders left the role on Tuesday.
He said in a recent interview that the department's problems were to do with a lack of money, and he called on congress to pass a $4.5bn (£3.55bn) bill to address the so-called border crisis.
Democrats in the US House of Representatives have already approved the humanitarian aid but the bill faces a tough route through the upper chamber, the Republican-controlled Senate, where there is an expected vote on Wednesday.
President Trump confirmed he did not seek Mr Sanders' resignation and added he did not think he had ever met him.
Mr Trump's hardline stance on immigration has come under intense scrutiny recently, as conditions inside border patrol facilities were found to be poor, with inadequate food and a lack of medical care.
At a migrant centre in Clint, Texas, lawyers found several children had flu, a two-year-old without a nappy was being watched over by two older children and many of the people there were separated from their families.
They also saw children in soiled clothing, covered in urine and faeces, with many of them not having washed since they entered the facility weeks ago.
