As the Trump Administration continues its reckless immigration crackdown, commercial flight crews are being forced into roles of facilitation. Airlines are for consumers and cargo, not immigration and customs enforcement. Therefore, the four major U.S. carriers should disallow all deportation-related bookings.

When I entered the airline industry as a second-generation aviation worker, and later became an airline union official, my ambition was to help bring folks together, to reunite family and friends, to make the world a more connected place — not to oversee vehicles of division.

On a recent flight I worked, there were seven "immigration deportees” onboard, erroneously referred to as “prisoners” by airport personnel — all women and children. These folks were treated like cargo, not people, much less passengers.

After learning their true classification, I connected with a woman in the group. She was kind and seemed grateful for the interaction. As they deplaned, she attempted to hand me a “pulsera de la amistad” — a friendship bracelet — made of multicolored threads. When she extended her hand, the ICE officer escorting them loudly ordered her to stop. She quickly pulled back and as the light in her eyes dimmed, I thanked her anyway for her generosity.

Upon my asking, the officer confirmed they were never convicted of a crime.

Flight crews and the flying public should not be unwilling or unwitting participants in this callous process. This is especially true given that U.S. airlines have a wonderfully diverse workforce, hiring green card and certain visa holders, particularly “language speakers” for international routes. It all adds a deeper emotional layer for crew who see themselves in those being removed.

Making matters more perilous, President Trump signed executive orders suspending both the asylum and refugee resettlement programs at the southern border. And the recent Supreme Court decision allowing the administration to deport migrants to places other than their homeland, even to war-torn countries and regardless of credible fears of torture and abuse, compound humanitarian concerns.

People will die due to these decisions. The real possibility that the folks being transported on commercial flights could be at-risk of death upon entry to their country of origin or elsewhere — by gangs, domestic abusers, corrupt officials or environmental and economic ruin — is something airline crew shouldn’t be involved in facilitating.

And during perhaps the most frightening time in their lives, migrants shouldn’t be paraded in front of other passengers traveling for fun, family or business. It’s cruel and degrading for them to be ushered through airports and pushed past first class cabins, sometimes in handcuffs and shackles. It’s also unfair to other travelers to be placed in this morally compromising position.

Though Trump ran on deporting "violent criminals", the Cato Institute found 65% of people taken by ICE had no convictions and 93% had no violent convictions. If the administration was made to rely solely on government planes and charters for deportation, and did not have access to the approximately 45,000 commercial flights operating daily in the US, perhaps they would be forced to prioritize violent offenders instead of good-hearted, hard working folks seeking opportunity.

But by allowing usage of their fleets, U.S. airlines are accomplices in this increasingly lawless mass deportation effort. With slogans like “Let Good Take Flight" (American Airlines), “Good Leads the Way” (United Airlines) and “Good Goes Around” (Delta Airlines), airlines have a duty to actually do good — to uphold those mottos in the face of potential harm to passengers of all backgrounds.