Four major airlines are asking the government to not involve their companies in transporting immigrant children who have been separated from their families at the United States border.
This comes after a flight attendant's story started to spread on Facebook about another flight crew of an unnamed airline being saddened to see a group of 16 young children on a red-eye flight from Arizona to Miami.
“The family separation process that has been widely publicized is not at all aligned with the values of American Airlines — we bring families together, not apart," American said in a statement Wednesday.
The company said it had previously carried refugees who were reuniting with friends or family, but that it had "no knowledge that the federal government has used American to transport children who have been separated from their parents due to the recent immigration policy."
The statement says American would be "extremely disappointed to learn that is the case."
Fort Worth-based American concluded their statement by saying they're now asking the federal government to immediately stop using them for the purpose of transporting separated children who have been taken from their families because of the current immigration policy.
"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," they said.
Following suit is United Airlines in a tweeted statement Wednesday afternoon.
"We have contacted federal officials to inform them that they should not transport immigrant children on United aircraft who have been separated from their parents," the statement said.
Frontier also stated its opposition in a tweet.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order bringing an end to family separation at the border.
"We want to keep families together," he said. "It's very important."
After Trump signed the order, Southwest issued a statement saying the airline did "not wish to have involvement in the process of separating children from their parents."
"Therefore, we appeal to anyone making those types of travel decisions not to utilize Southwest Airlines," the airline said.
There is no law that requires the separation of children from their families. The separations are occurring because of Trump's "zero tolerance" enforcement of an existing law to prosecute migrants crossing the border illegally, leaving children traveling with them to be treated as "unaccompanied minors."
USA Today contributed to this report.