Photo of father and daughter drowning on US border becomes symbol of the drama of Central American immigrants

Óscar Martinez and Valeria, from El Salvador, died while trying to cross the Rio Grande

MEXICO CITY - Father and daughter lying with their belly down, faces dipped in the murky water of the Rio Grande - Rio Bravo for the Mexicans - that separates Mexico from theUnited States . The head of the girl tucked into her father's blouse, her arm hanging from the man's neck.

The portrait of despair was captured on Monday by journalist Julia Le Duc , hours after Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez had drowned his 1-year-old daughter, Valeria, as they tried to reach the United States.

The image is a painful summary of the perilous journey immigrants face in pursuit of the "American dream" and the tragic consequences that often go unnoticed in today's fierce debate on the border issue.

It points to other shocking photos that have drawn attention to the horrors of wars and the suffering of refugees and immigrants - stories that are often swallowed up by the larger events. Like the photo of a Syrian child taken from the wreckage in Aleppo, Syria, a malnourished baby seen by a vulture in Sudan, and the Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, who died drowned on a beach in Greece, the portrait of Martinez and Valeria is strong enough to impact public opinion.

The young family of El Salvador - Martínez, 25, Valeria and her mother, Tania Vanessa Ávalos, 21 - stayed for two months in a Mexican shelter in the town of Tapachula, in southern Mexico, before attempting to cross Rio Grande , where the tragedy happened.

The three began crossing the Rio Grande in the middle of Saturday afternoon. According to Avalos, Martinez was swimming with Valeria in the back, stuck in his shirt, while she went behind, carried by a friend. In an interview with the newspaper La Jornada, Avalos said that her husband managed to get to the other bank, left the girl and came back to help her.

At that moment, the baby went back into the water, apparently for fear of being alone. Oscar tried to rescue her, but both were drawn by the current. On Monday, the bodies were recovered by the Mexican authorities, a few hundred meters ahead, in the same position.

- It is very sad that this happened, said Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador during a press conference on Tuesday, saying that as the number of immigrants rejected by the Americans increases, "there are people who lose their lives in the desert or crossing the Rio Grande ".

As the photo tapped into social networks on Tuesday, Democrats in the US House of Representatives approved $ 4.5 billion in humanitarian aid for immigrants held in shelters and detention centers on the Mexican border. On Wednesday, however, the Republican-majority Senate rejected the House bill and approved another $ 4.6 billion bill that gives more room for Donald Trump's government to decide how it will use the money. On Tuesday, allegations that immigrant children were being abused in an overcrowded shelter in Clint, Texas, toppled the head of the Customs and Border Protection Agency.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, leader of the Latino group in the legislature, was thrilled as he talked about photography in Washington. He said he hoped the image would sensitize parliamentarians and American society to the drama of immigrants.

"It's very difficult to see this picture," Castro said. "This is our version of the photograph of that 3-year-old Syrian boy, dead on the beach. It is.

Other incidents in recent weeks have once again exposed the dangers of the border. On Sunday, two babies, a child and a woman were found dead in the Rio Grande Valley, victims of the heat. About two months ago, three Honduran children and adults died drowned when their raft turned.

Even before Trump, dissuading potential immigrants from trying to cross has been a US government strategy to curb the waves of immigration.

Since when he was a candidate, Trump has put great pressure on Mexico to strengthen the fight against immigration, since most of the immigrants are Central Americans and cross Mexican territory towards the United States. Washington has sought to criminalize those who enter illegally into the United States, separating parents and children and reducing asylum applications.

Mexican efforts to fight immigration have increased in recent weeks, when López Obrador has agreed to tighten his policies. The Migration Agreement is a consequence of Trump's threats to impose tariffs on all products imported from Mexico should the number of immigrants who irregularly cross the border be reduced to zero.

On Monday, the Mexican government sent more than 20,000 men to its southern and northern borders - an attempt to prevent unauthorized immigrants from traveling to the United States, officials said. Meanwhile, human rights experts, immigrant advocates and security analysts have warned that the mobilization may trigger a search for more dangerous routes to reach the United States.