Beto O'Rourke Lashes Out, Says Trump 'Responsible' for Viral Photo of Dead Migrants
Democratic 2020 presidential nominee contender Beto O’Rourke pinned the blame of migrant deaths on President Donald Trump in a posting on Twitter on Tuesday.
O’Rourke tweeted an article from The Associated Press with a heartbreaking photo of a migrant and his nearly 2-year-old daughter lying face down in a river.
“Trump is responsible for these deaths,” he said.
O’Rourke also tweeted that the Trump administration is refusing to follow laws by “preventing refugees from presenting themselves for asylum at our ports of entry.”
“They cause families to cross between ports, ensuring greater suffering & death,” he added.
As his administration refuses to follow our laws — preventing refugees from presenting themselves for asylum at our ports of entry — they cause families to cross between ports, ensuring greater suffering & death. At the expense of our humanity, not to the benefit of our safety.
— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) June 26, 2019
According to The Associated Press, Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, and his daughter were unable to escape a fast-moving current in the Rio Grande river.
The girl could be seen with her arm around her father “suggesting she clung to him in her final moments,” AP reported.
Because Ramírez became frustrated that he couldn’t claim asylum, he took matters into his own hands and made the fatal decision to cross the Rio Grande, according to the story.
Ramírez was able to initially cross with his daughter, but after he placed her on the river bank to go back and get his wife, the girl jumped in the river.
The father immediately rushed to save his daughter, but just as he was able to grab her, the current swept the two of them away.
The story originally came from journalist Julia Le Duc, was published in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada and was later verified by the Associated Press.
The Daily Caller noted that “refugees are not normally prevented from claiming asylum.” Moreover, crossing the southern border at a point other than an official port of entry isn’t just dangerous, it’s illegal.
The former congressman from El Paso, Texas, hasn’t been shy in his criticism of the Trump administration’s border policies.
In an interview in May on “The View,” O’Rourke slammed the administration by saying that the barriers along the border “contribute to death and suffering” because it forces illegal immigrants to cross into the U.S. through more dangerous routes.
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