The heartbreaking photograph of a Salvadoran man and his 23-month-old daughter lying dead on the bank of the Rio Grande after having drowned attempting to cross illegally into Texas gained national attention last week and sparked dueling accusations: “Open borders” advocates claim the incident is the Trump administration’s fault, while those in favor of border security argue the tragedy is a result of lax immigration policy inspiring migrants to cross in record numbers, confident they can reside illegally in the country with little risk of deportation. But the president of El Salvador says the real blame falls on his own country.
“People don’t flee their homes because they want to,” Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said in a news conference in San Salvador this weekend. “They flee their homes because they feel they have to.”
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