Bodies of drowned father, daughter returned for burial in El Salvador

Bodies of a farther and his toddler daughter, who drowned in each other’s arms trying to cross into the US, have been returned back to their home country of El Salvador for a burial ceremony.

The father, Oscar Martinez, 25, and his 23-month-old daughter, Angie Valeria, drowned last Sunday in the Rio Grande as they were crossing from Mexico into Texas near Brownsville.

Martinez, who had apparently pulled his T-shirt over his daughter to improvise a baby carrier, was attempting to swim across the river.

Their bodies returned home on Sunday in the capital, where a private funeral ceremony is prepared to be held on Monday.

The incident was revealed after a devastating photo of the father and the girl went viral on social media, showing the little girl wrapped in a black t-shirt with her tiny right arm draped over his father’s shoulders.

The photo, which caught them face-down in the reeds of the river's shore, was reminiscent of that of a three-year-old Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea and whose body washed ashore on a beach in Turkey in 2015.

The image has also sparked anger across the world over the US aggressive policies against migrants who desperately risk their lives in search of a better live for their families.

Canadian cartoonist, Michael de Adder, drew a picture, featuring US President Donald Trump standing over the dead bodies of the father and his daughter, asking them, “Do you mind if I play through.”

PressTV-Canadian artist fired after viral Trump cartoon

A publishing company in Canada terminates its contract with cartoonist Michael de Adder after a drawing he did of US President Donald Trump, NBC News reports.

The cartoon went viral Wednesday and cost Adder his job, after his contract with four newspapers owned by Brunswick News, terminated.

The post, however, caught the attention of people across Canada and the US.

Trump has long been under pressure over his controversial anti-migrant policies, including the government treatment detained immigrant children, who have been kept in US detention centers.

Under pressure from Trump to slow the surge of Central Americans crossing the border, Mexico promised earlier this month to reinforce its southern border with 6,000 National Guardsmen, but had not previously disclosed the extent of the crackdown on its northern border.

Over 300 migrant children were discovered last week in an overcrowded border patrol station in Texas, where they said some had been held for weeks in filthy conditions without adequate food and water.

The Trump administration had been forced to reveal that a 10-year-old migrant girl died in its custody more than seven months ago, sparking further outcry after a spate of recent migrant child deaths while detained by the US government.

In another incident last year, a ten year old Salvadoran girl died while being held in the US custody.  The administrator revealed her death in May, some seven months after she passed away.

The child’s name and how she entered the US has not been revealed.

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