American Airlines has asked the federal government not to use its planes to transport migrant children who have been separated from their families, widening a backlash to a new Trump administration policy.

Under the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy towards illegal border crossings, adults are separated from their children so they can face prosecution. Thousands of young migrants have been taken from their families, with hundreds subsequently housed in a former Walmart and a newly constructed tent city in Texas.

Deploring the family separations as “not at all aligned with the values of American Airlines”, the carrier said in a statement that it had asked the federal government to “immediately refrain” from bringing children separated from their parents due to the new policy on board their aircraft.

“We have no desire to be associated with separating families, or worse, to profit from it”, the statement said.

American said it contracts with the federal government and has in the past carried refugees but, because the government does not disclose information about its flights, the company does not know if the government has used American aircraft to transport children affected by the new policy.

“We would be extremely disappointed to learn that is the case”, the statement said.

Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Show all 14 1 /14 Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Immigrant children, many of whom are separated form their parents, are housed in Texas' tent city Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented migrants ride on the top of a freight train referred to as the beast, or La Bestia Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A cage inside a US Customs and Border Protection detention facility in Texas Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy All new agents must complete a months-long training course at the New Mexico facility before assuming their posts at Border Patrol stations, mostly along the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence A group of young men walk along the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border fence in a remote area of the Sonoran Desert Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence in the US Man looks through US-Mexico border fence into the US in Tijuana, Mexico Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence US Border Patrol agent Sal De Leon stands near a section of the US-Mexico border fence while stopping on patrol on in La Joya, Texas Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy US Border Patrol instructor yells at trainees after their initial arrival to the academy Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Memorial service in Guatemala Families attend a memorial service for two boys who were kidnapped and killed in San Juan Sacatepequez, Guatemala. Crime drives emigration from Guatemala to the United States, as families seek refuge from the danger Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Arrests on the border Undocumented immigrants comfort each other after being caught by Border Patrol agents near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Detention holding facility A boy from Honduras watches a movie at a detention facility run by the US Border Patrol Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican farm workers Mexican migrant workers harvest organic parsley at Grant Family Farms in Wellington, Colorado Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican family in Arizona A Mexican immigrant family sits in the living room of their rented home in Tuscon, Arizona. The family that Arizona's new tough immigrant law had created a climate of fear in the immigrant community. Getty

In condemning the Trump administration’s harsh immigration turn, the airline joined a global chorus that has included Republicans in Congress.

Under pressure from his own party to act, Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to keep families intact by allowing them to be detained together.

Trump's US immigration policy explained