United, American ask out of flying migrant children

American Airlines and United

Airlines say they have asked the Trump administration not to use their flights to carry migrant children who have been separated from their parents.

Both airlines said that the administration’s recent immigration policy of separating migrant families conflicts with their values.

“We have no desire to be associated with separating families, or worse, to profit from it,” American said in a statement.

United issued a statement in which CEO Oscar Munoz said the company’s purpose is to connect people. “This policy and its impact on thousands of children is in deep conflict with that mission and we want no part of it,” he said.

A spokesman for the Homeland

Security Department accused the airlines of no longer wanting to help the agency protect the traveling public and reunite unaccompanied illegal immigrant children with their families.

“Despite being provided facts on this issue, these airlines clearly do not understand our immigration laws,” the spokesman, Tyler Houlton, said in a statement. He accused the airlines of “buckling to a false media narrative.”

On Wednesday, President Donald

Trump signed an executive order to keep families together at the southern border, saying at the White House that he doesn’t like the sight of children being separated from their families. But he added that the “zero tolerance” policy will continue.