U.S. Senate galvanized by chilling migrant drowning photo, passes border funding bill

The U.S. Senate approved bipartisan legislation Wednesday providing $4.6 billion to care for thousands of migrants streaming into the U.S. across the Mexican border.

The Senate vote was 84-8 and came after an emotional debate highlighted Wednesday morning by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s display of a blown-up image on the Senate floor depicting a shocking photo of a Salvadoran father and his daughter who drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande.

“President Trump I want you to look at this photo,” Schumer said. “These are not drug dealers or vagrants or criminals. They are people simply fleeing a horrible situation in their home country for a better life.”

Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, appeared to choke up when referring to the photo.

“Now I realize tragedies occur all over this country, all over the world. I don’t want to see another picture like that on the US border,” Johnson said, later adding. “We need to start doing something. It’s well past time.”

The Senate measure resembles a package Democrats already pushed through the U.S. House with scant Republican support. The House bill has more constraints than the Senate version on how the Trump administration would use the money, leaving the next step unclear.

Congressional leaders hope to send President Donald Trump a compromise measure before lawmakers leave town for a July 4 recess.

The startling photo of the corpses of the two migrants and revelations of horrid conditions for children detained in Texas by U.S. authorities have put pressure on Congress to improve migrants’ conditions.

Trump spoke to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday, after Pelosi called the president to press for negotiations. The President described their chat as a “good conversation.”