Uber, Lyft offer financial help, rides to families at border

The rival ride-hailing companies pitch in money and free rides

As tech executives continue to speak out over the Trump administration’s separation of children from their parents at the U.S.Mexico border, Lyft and Uber are sharing what they’re doing to try to help.

Lyft is offering free rides to a dozen organizations working to help the people who have tried to enter the United States and have been detained and/or separated from their families. One of those organizations, Texas-based RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education & Legal Services), has also received nearly $10 million in donations through a Facebook fundraiser that was started over the weekend.

When Lyft CEO Logan Green announced the rides Tuesday on Twitter, he said the families are being “unjustly separated.”

Lyft is also asking its riders to round up to donate to the American Civil Liberties Union, which has already sued President Donald Trump’s administration over family separations.

Meanwhile, Uber on Tuesday donated $100,000 to KIND (Kids in Need of Defense, a legal defense organization for immigrant children who enter the United States alone). The company also is asking law firms that do pro bono work on behalf of immigrants what its legal department can do to help, and continues to work with immigration advocacy groups such as FWD.us, according to a memo to employees this week.

“As a father, a citizen and

“Families are the backbone of society. A policy that pulls them apart rather than building them up is immoral and just plain wrong.” — Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber

an immigrant myself, the stories coming from our border break my heart,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi tweeted Tuesday. “Families are the backbone of society. A policy that pulls them apart rather than building them up is immoral and just plain wrong.”

The rival San Francisco ride-hailing companies have both advocated on immigration issues, such as protecting DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients, and speaking out against Trump’s proposed travel ban that affected mostly Muslim-majority countries.

Wednesday, there were reports that Trump is planning to put an end to the “zero tolerance policy” of separating families at the border. Instead, according to reports by the New York Times and others, parents and children will be detained together.