Washington (CNN) Acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli blamed the father in the now-infamous photograph of a drowned man and his daughter at the southern border for both of their deaths.

When asked by CNN's Erin Burnett on Thursday whether he was concerned that the photo would become emblematic of the administration's immigration policy, Cuccinelli replied, "no in fact, just the opposite."

"The reason we have tragedies like that on the border is because those folks, that father didn't want to wait to go through the asylum process in the legal fashion, so decided to cross the river," Cuccinelli said of father Oscar Alberto Martínez and his daughter, 23-month-old Angie Valeria, whose bodies were found in the Rio Grande.

"And not only died, but his daughter died tragically as well," he added on "Erin Burnett OutFront." "Until we fix the attractions in our asylum system, people like that father and that child are going to continue to come through a dangerous trip."

Cuccinelli is an immigration hardliner who joined the Trump administration as acing CIS director earlier this month.

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