Editor’s note: This story contains a graphic image showing dead bodies.
- Oscar Martinez, 25, and his daughter, 23-month-old Angie Valeria, died while immigrating illegally to the United States.
- A searing photo of the drowned family, captured by journalist Julia Le Duc and published by Mexican newspaper La Jornada, became symbols of the increasing perils of illegal immigration under President Donald Trump.
- The corpses of the two were returned to their homeland of El Salvador on Sunday.
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LA HACHADURA, El Salvador (Reuters) – The corpses of a Salvadoran father and his 23-month-old daughter, whose bodies lying face down in the Rio Grande became symbols of the perils of illegal immigration to the United States, were returned to their homeland on Sunday.
A stark photo of the dead Oscar Martinez, 25, and his daughter Angie Valeria floating near the bank of the river ignited fresh criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tough policies on undocumented migrants entering the United States via Mexico.
Martinez and his family had left El Salvador in April, hoping to find work in the United States. But their dream unraveled last Sunday when they tried to cross the river that separates northeast Mexico from the United States.
Traveling in a convoy of government vehicles and white vans from a funeral home, the bodies of the drowned migrants left Mexico for El Salvador, where they are due to be buried on Monday. Interior Minister Mario Duran accompanied the remains but did not speak to reporters.
Amid a large police presence, Reuters saw the convoy entering El Salvador at around 8:19 a.m. local time through the border crossing of La Hachadura on the frontier with Guatemala.
The family will hold a private funeral service in La Bermeja cemetery in San Salvador on Monday.
The searing image of the prone Martinez with the toddler tucked under his black t-shirt has drawn comparisons to a 2015 photo of Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian refugee, whose body washed up on the shores of the Mediterranean.
See Also:
- Trump says he’ll ‘immediately’ appeal a federal judge’s ruling that blocks spending $2.5 billion on border wall
- Beto O’Rourke falters as his Democratic competitors hammer him on healthcare and immigration
- Trump tweets that the first 2020 Democratic debate is ‘BORING!’
Source: Business Insider –