The migrant father pictured with his toddler daughter after the two drowned while attempting to cross the Rio Grande into Texas was attempting to build his family a new home and a new life in America, People reported.
Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez’s dreams of starting over in the US were tragically dashed when he and his 23-month-old daughter were caught in river’s dangerous currents.
Three months ago, Óscar and his wife, Tania Vanessa, were living in El Salvador with their toddler daughter, Valeria.
Óscar worked at a pizzeria there but was only making $350 a month. His wife had previously worked at a Chinese restaurant but now stayed home to take care of Valeria. Money was tight and the family was feeling the financial strain.
They lived with Óscar’s mother, Rosa, in a two-bedroom home just outside of San Salvador.
Rosa said her son had his sights set firmly on starting a new life in America and couldn’t be dissuaded.
“I begged them not to go, but he wanted to scrape together money to build a home,” she told the Associated Press . “They hoped to be there a few years and save up for the house.”
If he was going to go, Rosa begged her son to at least leave behind his toddler daughter so she could stay with her grandma.
But in response, Óscar told her, “No, mamá. How can you think that I would leave her?”
“He didn’t have the courage to leave her,” Rosa said.
The family had arrived in Matamoros on Sunday, hoping to request asylum from US authorities there.
According to the Guardian , Óscar was reportedly told that it could be weeks before they would even be able to start the asylum process.
It was at this point that, with American soil in sight and likely feeling immense desperation, he decided the family should swim across the Rio Grande and enter Texas that way.
Reports indicate that Óscar and Valeria had actually made it across the river onto the Texas side.
He left his daughter there to wait while he turned to go back and get his wife from the other side. However, when young Valeria saw her father swimming away from her, she apparently jumped in after him, compelling him to grab hold of her and attempt to swim her to safety.
Rosa explained that her son was unable to keep both himself and his daughter above the water a second time.
“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,” she said. “He put her in his shirt, and I imagine he told himself, ‘I’ve come this far’ and decided to go with her.”
Óscar’s wife Tania, who had been left alone on the shore, realized she couldn’t see her family in the water and cried out for help.
Officials searched the water for the father and daughter, but as night fell darkness impeded their visibility. It wasn’t until the next morning that they discovered the two bodies floating face-down against the shore, huddled together after having drowned embracing each other.
The photo of the pair is below. It may be disturbing for some readers to see.
“Neither of them let each other go. That’s how they died, both of them hugging.”
Rosa said the tragic photo is “astonishing” to see, particularly considering the way in which the two were found together.
“He never let her go,” she said. “You can see how he protected her.”
The photo, which has quickly gone viral since it was first published on Monday, has ignited debates about asylum-seekers.
It is especially poignant in its commentary on the immense dangers that the largely Central American migrants face in their attempts to escape poverty, violence, and corruption to find peace and asylum in America.
The Trump administration has significantly tightened the country’s asylum system.
These US policies are making it harder and harder for migrants to enter the country, leaving them desperate enough to attempt deadly crossings in dangerous areas.
This year alone, dozens of people have died while attempting to cross the treacherous Rio Grande. Water levels are at their highest in 20 years and record levels of snow-melt run-off have turned this river into a raging torrent.
“I grew up here along the [Río Grande],” Claudia Hernández, a Mexican police officer in the border town of Piedras Negras, told the Guardian . “I wouldn’t even go into that water to bathe or swim. There are springs and whirlpools and when the current takes you it can pull you under.”
Rosa said Óscar “loved his daughter so much. He loved her and that’s why he took her.”
She also said she foresaw tragedy in the family’s asylum attempt, saying, “Ever since [Óscar] first told me that they wanted to go, I told him not to. I had a feeling, it was such an ugly premonition. As a mother, I sensed that something could happen.”
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In her final conversation with her daughter before Óscar’s deadly crossing, Tania’s own mother told her to “pray as much as possible” and was assured by her daughter that “they didn’t have far to go.”
