Why shocking photos of drowned migrants must be seen - Warning: Distressing images
The image of a father, Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez, and his young聽daughter Valeria, lifeless in the Rio Grande, must be seen.
Wednesday 26 June 2019 19:37, UK
:: Warning distressing images below
Shocking. Heartbreaking. Agonising. Gut wrenching.
But all the words I can find fall short of expressing what you feel looking at this photo.
My instinct is to look away.
But the image of a father, Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez, and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria, lifeless in the shallows of the Rio Grande, must be seen.
At its simplest, it shows the tragic end of a dad's desperate swim to get his child to safety.
Valeria's tiny arm, draped around his neck.
She must have been clinging to him in her final, unimaginable moments - she was just weeks away from her second birthday.
More broadly, it shows the devastating consequences of a broken immigration system that stokes the danger faced by thousands of Central Americans escaping poverty and violence at home for a better life in the United States.
Undocumented migrants are allowed to cross borders to seek asylum - but Mexico is currently under huge pressure from President Donald Trump to stop them.
Under the threat of tariffs, an agreement with the US has been reached in which Mexico is reinforcing its southern border with 6,000 national guardsmen, to stem the influx from Central America.
US border agencies report being overwhelmed by the number of undocumented people, largely Central Americans, trying to cross into North America.
For the first time in over a decade, the numbers are regularly exceeding 100,000 people per month.
This means crowded detention facilities - some warehousing unaccompanied minors.
Inside, children as young as eight are reportedly attempting to look after babies in unsanitary conditions.
They lack simple necessities like proper beds, soap and toothbrushes.
Such conditions have led progressives like Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to compare the administration's migrant detention facilities to concentration camps.
Customs and Border Protection chief operating officer John Sanders announced on Tuesday that he was stepping down amid the anger over his agency's treatment of detained migrant children.
The same day, the House of Representatives approved a $4.5bn (£3.5bn) emergency border aid package to care for thousands of migrant families and unaccompanied children detained after crossing the US-Mexico border.
But it may struggle to get through the Republican-led Senate.
So outrage was already swelling when the image of a father and his tiny daughter arrived in millions of social media feeds.
We don't know what impact, if any, it will have - but surely it has to mean something?
Those on the left will see it as evidence of the cruelty of Mr Trump's immigration crackdown.
His supporters will argue that the influx of "bad people" is the main concern and America's safety has to remain the priority.
Expect this to loom large at the Democratic debate in Miami, Florida, where the hopefuls who want to take on Trump will have to come up with some clear answers on how to bring these repeated tragedies to an end.