Schumer displays photo of drowned migrants on Senate floor in appeal to Trump

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) displayed on the Senate floor Wednesday the photo that went viral this week of two drowned migrants in a direct appeal to President Trump over his immigration policies. 

“President Trump, I want you to look at this photo,” Schumer said, pointing to the image of a 23-month-old lying face down in the Rio Grande with her arm around her father’s neck.

{mosads}”These are not drug dealers, or vagrants, or criminals. They are people simply fleeing a horrible situation in their home country for a better life,” Schumer said.

The image was captured by journalist Julia Le Duc in Matamoros, Mexico, on Monday. The Associated Press identified the bodies as Salvador Óscar Alberto Martínez and his daughter Valeria, two migrants from Salvador. 

The father and daughter reportedly drowned attempting to swim across the river after being unable to request asylum in the United States.

A searing photo of a man and his 23-month-old daughter who drowned in the Rio Grande underscores the perils of the migration crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border. https://t.co/y8GmQRth4L

— The Associated Press (@AP) June 25, 2019

Schumer’s plea to Trump follows weeks of amplified backlash on the administration’s handling of migrants seeking asylum. 

Reports of unsanitary and unsafe conditions at border facilities have been sharply criticized by Democrats and lawyers who say the conditions violate the law and are inhumane.

Trump is making immigration and what he’s calling a border crisis a crucial focus of his time in office and his reelection campaign. 

The president threatened mass deportation under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last week, but later said he’d delay the raids for two weeks at “the request of Democrats.”