"You are head of the Executive Branch," Sen. Chuck Schumer reportedly told Trump. "You control what’s happening at the border"

Trump Says He 'Hates' That 'Wonderful' Dad & Toddler Drowned Trying to Get to U.S., Then Blames Democrats

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was struck by a devastating photo of a young father and daughter who drowned trying to swim across the Rio Grande and enter the U.S. from Mexico.

But in the same sentence that he shared his distress, Trump pivoted to blaming Democrats for the set of circumstances at the southern border that drove the family into the water in the first place.

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“I know it could stop immediately if the Democrats change the law,” Trump said, without elaborating on which possible reforms could be helpful.

“They have to change the laws,” he said. “And then that father, who probably was this wonderful guy, with his daughter, things like that wouldn’t happen.”

“If we had the right laws, that the Democrats are not letting us have, those people, they wouldn’t be coming up,” Trump said. “They wouldn’t be trying.”

In response, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reportedly said, “That’s a disgrace. Mr. President, you are president of the United States. You are head of the Executive Branch. You control what’s happening at the border.”

Speaking with reporters outside the White House on Wednesday, Trump said, “I hate it,” referring to an internationally circulated image of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, 25, and his 23-month-old daughter, whose bodies washed ashore in Mexico across the river from Brownsville, Texas.

The father and daughter were found Monday morning, according to news reports.

Their relatives said they left El Salvador seeking more economic opportunity and had been in Mexico about two months before arriving in the city of Matamoros with Ramírez’s wife, brother and daughter, who has been identified alternately as Valeria and Angie Valeria.

Ramírez’s family was seeking asylum in the U.S., according to the Associated Press. But it was unclear if they were able to make their official request before they chose to try to cross the Rio Grande out of apparent desperation.

Image zoom Tania Vanessa Ávalos of El Salvador speaks with Mexican authorities after her husband and nearly 2-year-old daughter were swept away by the current while trying to cross the Rio Grande to Brownsville, Texas, in Matamoros, Mexico. Julia Le Duc/AP/Shutterstock

The federal government has been strictly controlling the amount of asylum applicants under a “metering” policy officially meant to prevent immigrants from overwhelming available border resources, according to NPR.

However, critics have charged the policy is a veil for the government’s real goal of cutting down on immigration, CNN reported in December.

Trump made immigration a centerpiece of his 2016 campaign. Since taking office he has moved broadly to reduce the amount of both legal and illegal immigration in the U.S.

The Mexican border is the site of many migrants from Central and South America who have fled poverty and extreme violence seeking new lives in America — but who are now struggling in limbo waiting for possible entry while living in shelters and camps.