Pelosi slams US for ignoring ‘obligations to humanity’ in response to photo of drowned migrants

WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hoped the pictures of two migrants who drowned attempting to cross the Rio Grande river would help change the Trump administration’s stance on immigration. 

Pelosi told the Associated Press that “This is a manifestation of behavior that is outside the circle of civilized human behavior.” She said the U.S. is ignoring its “obligations to humanity,” and she hoped that it will show that “something could be done that is better.”

Immigration debate: Graphic photo of drowned father and daughter stirs volatile immigration debate

She added that “We’ve had many challenges to conscience” that have not changed the immigration debate, but was hopeful this might shift the debate. 

The photos of the drowned father and daughter prompted controversy after the Associated Press decided to circulate them to its membership on Tuesday. Journalist Julia Le Duc’s pictures show Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter Valeria deceased and face down on a muddy riverbank of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico, after trying to cross to the U.S. side of the river. 

Democratic presidential candidate and former HUD Secretary Julián Castro slammed the administration’s immigration policies on Twitter, writing that “We need a more sensible, compassionate immigration system that doesn’t criminalize desperation.”

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus said that the pair were “dead because of Trump’s cruel policies.”

And Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., a Democratic presidential candidate called it “a stain on our moral conscience.”

More: Photos of drowned father and daughter are gut-wrenching. Why we decided to publish them.

Le Duc’s reporting for the Mexican newspaper La Jornada said that Ramírez and his daughter drowned after being unable to present himself to U.S. authorities in an effort to request asylum. He and his daughter had been swept away by the current of Rio Grande after being turned away.

USA TODAY has not been able to independently confirm the account, though details of the incident were confirmed to the Associated Press on Tuesday by a Tamaulipas, Mexico, government official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. It also was confirmed by Martínez’s mother in El Salvador, Rosa Ramírez, who spoke with her daughter-in-law by phone afterward. Le Duc told the AP that the account was based on remarks by Tania Vanessa Ávalos, Ramírez’s wife, to police at the scene.

“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,” Ramírez told the AP. “He put her in his shirt, and I imagine he told himself, ‘I’ve come this far’ and decided to go with her.”

Contributing: The Associated Press; Mike James, USA TODAY

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