Veteran flight attendant: I will not work flights with migrant children separated from their families
A Dallas-based flight attendant, claiming to have flown recent flights with migrant children who had been separated from their families, has declared he will no longer work flights that separate children from their families.
The Houston Chronicle published an essay on Tuesday that had been adapted from Hunt Palmquist's Facebook post.
"Several weeks ago, I worked two flights (one to San Antonio and the other to McAllen) which proved to be two of the most disturbing flights I've ever experienced in my career," Palmquist wrote. "On board these particular flights were ICE agents and migrant children (approximately four to eleven years old) who had been separated from their families and were being flown to a 'relocation" site.'"
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While it is unclear how Palmquist determined they were migrant children, he went on to say that a fellow flight attendant friend "was lied to by an ICE agent who said the children on the flight were part of a soccer team."
The agent eventually revealed the children were being relocated to assigned camps.
Palmquist, a 29-year industry veteran, said he's been kicking himself for not walking off those flights.
Since working the two flights, the images of those helpless children have burned into my psyche. 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.
The flight attendant won't be working similar flights in the future.
"I will no longer be complicit and will walk away from any future flight assignments that try to make me a pawn for this disgusting and deplorable cause."
