US official blames the man who drowned in the Rio Grande for his own death and that of his daughter

The acting director of Citizenship and Immigration of the United States, Ken Cuccinelli, said a man who drowned with her daughter while trying to cross the southern border is guilty of two deaths.

When CNN's Erin Burnett asked her on Thursday if she worried that the now infamous photo of the event would become an emblem of the government's immigration policy, Cuccinelli replied: "No, in fact, quite the opposite."

"The reason we have tragedies like that on the border is that those people, that father did not want to wait to go through the asylum process legally, so he decided to cross the river," Cuccinelli said of Óscar Alberto Martínez and his daughter, Angie Valeria, 23 months old, whose bodies were found in the Rio Grande or the Rio Grande.

"And not only did he die, but his daughter also died tragically," he added on the "Erin Burnett OutFront" show. "Until we eliminate the attractions in our asylum system, people like that father and that girl will continue to make dangerous journeys."

Cuccinelli is a hard-line member of the immigration team who joined the Trump the administration earlier this month.

Its evaluation contrasts with what the afflicted relatives of Martinez have said.

Martinez's mother, Rosa Ramírez, told CNN that her son died while trying to save his daughter's life.

Tania Vanessa Ávalos, Óscar's wife and mother of Angie Valeria, told the Mexican newspaper La Jornada that her family was increasingly desperate. Temperatures reached more than 110 degrees Farenheit (40 degrees Celsius) at the migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico, where the family had been waiting to show up at a US port of entry and seek asylum, he said.

At the end of May, more than 2,000 migrants waited "in conditions of hunger and overcrowding" there to seek asylum in ports where according to La Jornada, US agents granted an average of three appointments per week.

They had been in a migrant camp in Matamoros since Sunday, the newspaper said, citing Ávalos.

"Óscar Alberto took Valeria in his arms and entered the water; He swam to the other side and reached the mainland, where he left his daughter. Immediately after, he returned and went to Tania, "wrote La Jornada."

However, in an instant, he realized that the girl, after seeing her father walking away, threw herself into the water. Óscar Alberto returned and managed to grab the girl, but a strong current dragged them and sank them. "

The former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Mayor of San Antonio, Julian Castro, suggested during the Democratic debate on Wednesday night that the Trump administration's policy of limiting asylum at the ports of entry caused the death of the couple.

The policy of the Trump administration, known as "metering", has led to longer waiting times, although it is difficult to attribute it to the motives of a migrant to make the decision to cross the border illegally. 

Customs and Border Protection has said that it does not know how many migrants have been rejected as a result of this policy.