Harrowing picture of drowned migrant toddler clinging onto her lifeless father's body shows toll of US border crisis

A father and daughter lie drowned in the muddy waters of the Rio Grande after their quest for a better life in the USA ended in tragedy.

The bodies of Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez, 25, and 23-month-old Valeria were found face down in the water after they tried to cross the river from Mexico as the child’s mother watched horrified on the opposite bank.

In the photo taken by journalist Julia Le Duc, the girl’s head is tucked inside her father’s T-shirt, her arm draped across his neck.

The picture has gone viral on social media, raising questions about the Trump administration’s stance on the migrant crisis on America’s southern border.

It has drawn comparisons among politicians with the image of three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, whose body washed up on a Turkish beach in 2015, sparking a worldwide debate on the plight of refugees.

Mr Martinez and his daughter, from El Salvador, were found near Matamoros, across the fast-flowing river from Brownsville, Texas, on Monday.

The young family had spent the last two months in Mexico in a migrant camp and arrived in the border city last weekend hoping to apply for asylum to the US.

Mr Martinez had quit his $350-a-month job at Papa John’s pizza delivery to make the trip, while his wife had already left her job as a cashier at a Chinese restaurant to care for their daughter, friends said.

But the international bridge was closed and, according to reports, they decided to try to swim across the Rio Grande, believing the currents were manageable.

The child’s 21-year-old mother, Tania Vanessa Ávalos, who was swimming across with a family friend, decided to turn back to the Mexican side and reportedly watched helplessly as Mr Martinez, with their daughter tucked in his black T-shirt, was swept away.

“They went for the American dream. They said they were afraid of how the situation with the migrants was under pressure from Trump, so they decided to cross the river,” Mr Martinez’s sister, Wendy Joanna Martinez de Romero, told a Salvadoran news site.

In February, Mr Trump declared a national emergency to unlock billions of dollars in federal funds to build his much-vaunted border wall. He also threatened to impose tariffs on imports from Mexico unless it took steps to stem the flow of illegal migrants.

Alexandra Hill, El Salvador’s minister for foreign affairs, said: “Our country is in mourning, again. I beg you, to all the families, parents, don’t risk it. Life is worth a lot more.”

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador claimed that the more migrants were being turned away by the US, the more people were losing their lives “in the desert or crossing the Rio Grande”.

Joaquin Castro, who represents a Texan district in the House of Representatives and chairs the Hispanic Caucus, said he hoped that the photograph would change attitudes to migration among politicians and the wider American public.

“It’s very hard to see that photograph,” Mr Castro said. “It’s our version of the Syrian photograph — of the three-year-old boy on the beach, dead.’’

On Sunday, two babies, a child and a woman were found dead in the Rio Grande Valley, and three children from Honduras died when their raft overturned in the river two months ago.

Last night the Democrat-led House of Representatives pushed through a $4.5 billion bill to provide emergency aid along the border with Mexico.

It would ensure higher standards of medical care and nutrition for migrants, but the White House has threatened to veto the bill, saying it includes “partisan provisions designed to hamstring the administration’s border enforcement efforts”.