DALLAS _ American Airlines is asking the federal government to "immediately refrain" from using the airline to transport immigrant children who have been separated from their families at the U.S. border, the company said Wednesday.
American said it has "no knowledge" whether migrant children separated from their families have been transported on previous flights, but said it would be "extremely disappointed to learn that is the case."
"We have no desire to be associated with separating families, or worse, to profit from it. We have every expectation the government will comply with our request and we thank them for doing so," the company said in a statement.
American is one of the first major U.S. corporations to weigh in on a federal immigration policy that has become the center of national controversy over the past week. At least 2,300 children have been separated from their parents under the new "zero tolerance" policy, under which every adult detained at the border is immediately taken into custody for prosecution.
The statement comes after multiple accounts, some anonymous, have circulated on social media from flight attendants describing their unease working flights where what they understood to be migrant children in government custody were among the passengers.
"Since working the two flights, the images of those helpless children have burned into my psyche," Hunt Palmquist wrote in a Facebook post that was adapted into an essay for the Houston Chronicle. "The little children whose faces were full of fear, confusion, sadness and exhaustion left me somewhat traumatized as it occurred to me a few weeks later that I might as well have been a collaborator in their transport."
Palmquist is based in Dallas and describes himself as a 29-year veteran of a major U.S. airline, but does not specify the airline.
American said it does provide travel to the federal government on a contract basis, including carrying refugees for non-profits and the government.
American said the government does not disclose information about the nature of flights it takes or the passengers who are traveling.
United Airlines said it "wants no part" of the immigration policy and advised the federal government not to transport migrant children separated from their parents on its aircraft. A spokesman for the Chicago-based airline said internal research has turned up no evidence migrant children have been transported on United planes.
"Our company's shared purpose is to connect people and unite the world. This policy and its impact on thousands of children is in deep conflict with that mission and we want no part of it," United's CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement.
Southwest and Delta Air Lines did not immediately respond to requests for information about whether migrant children have been carried on their planes.
