United Airlines donates flights to reunite families separated at border

United Airlines is donating flights to help reunited immigrant families that were separated at the U.S.’s southern border.

The San Francisco Business Times reported Thursday that the pro-immigration lobbying group FWD.us announced United’s donation in a Facebook post, calling it “needed, timely, and critical.”

“A growing community of support is coming together to reunite families who were separated at the border,” the group posted Wednesday. “We are so thankful and happy to announce that United Airlines is jumping in and helping. Thanks to this partnership with United, we are able to provide travel to the recently reunited immigrant families to get to their next destination with dignity.”

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United added in a comment on the post, “Our company’s shared purpose is to connect people and unite the world — we are proud to support your work to help reunify immigrant children and families.”

The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) also announced Tuesday that it would donate $3 million toward its “Flights for Families” project.

RAICES, one of the groups working to reunite families at the border, said in the announcement that it would work with FWD.us and Families Belong Together on the initiative.

FWD.us was founded by Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Dropbox’s Drew Houston. 

The Trump administration said Thursday evening that it would reunite all eligible separated immigrant children over the age of 5 with their families by the court-ordered deadline at midnight.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) claims that the administration did not meet the deadline because hundreds of immigrant parents were deemed ineligible or deported before they could be reunited with their children.

Several airlines, including United, announced earlier this year that it would not allow federal authorities to use their planes to transport migrant children separated from their families.

President Trump signed an executive order last month to end his administration’s policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the border, which was a result of the administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.