The nightmare that is Trump’s America has gotten very real indeed for a group of folks you might not have guessed—airline flight attendants. They suddenly find themselves working redeye flights with large groups of terrified, non-English-speaking children dressed in cheap grey sweats.
I first read of it in a tweet Monday night:
Yesterday evening I verified this with a friend who works for one of the big airlines. She says it’s a hot topic on various flight attendants’ online lists as people debate how best to respond. To refuse to work a flight, for instance, would only delay that flight until a replacement FA could be found, prolonging the kids’ agony.
I don't know how to handle this. I don't ever want to be a part of something I consider evil and say "I was just doing my job". I know at least 4 of my great grandparents came to the US through various not quite legal means and I'll be damned if I say it was ok for my family and not for these families now. What is the best way to handle this situation? What would you do?
Here’s what I told her, and I hope other Kossacks, especially flight attendants, weigh in too:
I think the place to start is with information. Flight attendants are uniquely situated to report and compile instances of this happening with actual flight data (flight number, date, time, destination), a count or roster of such passengers (who incidentally are almost definitely flying without the usual approved forms of identification), information on who is accompanying them and any anecdotes.
From this, it will be possible to generate a bigger picture which could be helpful in several ways:
1. exposure in the media and possible consequent pressure on the airlines and the government
2. identification of patterns which might make it possible to have lawyers or activists greet flights at their destination
3. help in mapping where immigrants, children and adults, are being held. I will try to find a blog article I saw in the last two days on a woman geographer who is constructing a map of prisons using crowdsourcing information to help.
(Questions of security for airline folks fighting this are obviously important. Union backing is one element. So is having an external point to centralize this info.)
Wednesday, Jun 20, 2018 · 9:29:33 PM +00:00 · lao hong han
UPDATE #2
Latest tally: American, United, Frontier, Southwest and Spirit have all said “nuh-unh, not us.” Delta got all mealy-mouthed: “Recent reports of families being separated are disheartening and do not align with Delta’s core values.”