SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A mother and son are reunited at Baltimore-Washingtion International Airport after having been separated upon arriving in the U.S., under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Viral Tweet Helps Fuel 5.8 Million Frequent Flyer Mile Donations to Families Separated by Trump
A charity dedicated to reuniting refugee families using donated miles expects to be able to help 390 people thanks to the new contributions
Aug 10, 2018
With many keenly aware of the chaos and heartache President Donald Trump caused by implementing his family separation and child detention policies, Trump critics have donated millions of frequent flyer miles to families who remain separated more than a month after the president was forced to end the practice.
More than 30,000 people retweeted a message from University of Michigan law professor Beth Wilensky this week regarding the frequent flyer miles her family was donating to a local charity. The Michigan Support Circle would in turn give the miles to a father and his three-year-old son, who were waiting to be reunited with their family elsewhere in the United States.
Wilensky's tweet helped result in 5.8 million miles being donated to Miles 4 Migrants, a group that uses "donated frequent flyer miles and money to book flights that bring refugees to their new homes and reunite families separated by conflict and persecution."
The families that the group is helping all have government approval to be reunited and relocated to join their families who are already based in the U.S., Miles 4 Migrants co-founder Nicholas Ruiz told Buzzfeed.
"The only thing holding them back is the cost of the flight," he said.
In the weeks after Trump signed an executive order directing immigration officials to stop separating families, reports surfaced that immigrants and their families were being forced to pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars in airfare to reunite.
Miles 4 Migrants has booked flights for 151 people since forming in 2016, and its directors expect to help 390 more following this week's donations.
More than 2,500 children were separated from their parents by Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy, and the administration missed a court-ordered deadline at the end of July to reunite every family.
According to a court filing by Trump officials this week, 559 children remain separated from their parents, while an untold number of reunited families lack the funds needed to get them to their extended families in the United States.
Ruiz attributed the enthusiastic response to Wilensky's tweet to the widespread outrage over the family separation crisis and the desire of many Americans to directly combat Trump's violation of families' human rights.
"What would you do if you were separated from your family?" he said to Buzzfeed. "[Donors] see this as something very simple and a very tangible way to make a difference."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
With many keenly aware of the chaos and heartache President Donald Trump caused by implementing his family separation and child detention policies, Trump critics have donated millions of frequent flyer miles to families who remain separated more than a month after the president was forced to end the practice.
More than 30,000 people retweeted a message from University of Michigan law professor Beth Wilensky this week regarding the frequent flyer miles her family was donating to a local charity. The Michigan Support Circle would in turn give the miles to a father and his three-year-old son, who were waiting to be reunited with their family elsewhere in the United States.
Wilensky's tweet helped result in 5.8 million miles being donated to Miles 4 Migrants, a group that uses "donated frequent flyer miles and money to book flights that bring refugees to their new homes and reunite families separated by conflict and persecution."
The families that the group is helping all have government approval to be reunited and relocated to join their families who are already based in the U.S., Miles 4 Migrants co-founder Nicholas Ruiz told Buzzfeed.
"The only thing holding them back is the cost of the flight," he said.
In the weeks after Trump signed an executive order directing immigration officials to stop separating families, reports surfaced that immigrants and their families were being forced to pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars in airfare to reunite.
Miles 4 Migrants has booked flights for 151 people since forming in 2016, and its directors expect to help 390 more following this week's donations.
More than 2,500 children were separated from their parents by Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy, and the administration missed a court-ordered deadline at the end of July to reunite every family.
According to a court filing by Trump officials this week, 559 children remain separated from their parents, while an untold number of reunited families lack the funds needed to get them to their extended families in the United States.
Ruiz attributed the enthusiastic response to Wilensky's tweet to the widespread outrage over the family separation crisis and the desire of many Americans to directly combat Trump's violation of families' human rights.
"What would you do if you were separated from your family?" he said to Buzzfeed. "[Donors] see this as something very simple and a very tangible way to make a difference."
With many keenly aware of the chaos and heartache President Donald Trump caused by implementing his family separation and child detention policies, Trump critics have donated millions of frequent flyer miles to families who remain separated more than a month after the president was forced to end the practice.
More than 30,000 people retweeted a message from University of Michigan law professor Beth Wilensky this week regarding the frequent flyer miles her family was donating to a local charity. The Michigan Support Circle would in turn give the miles to a father and his three-year-old son, who were waiting to be reunited with their family elsewhere in the United States.
Wilensky's tweet helped result in 5.8 million miles being donated to Miles 4 Migrants, a group that uses "donated frequent flyer miles and money to book flights that bring refugees to their new homes and reunite families separated by conflict and persecution."
The families that the group is helping all have government approval to be reunited and relocated to join their families who are already based in the U.S., Miles 4 Migrants co-founder Nicholas Ruiz told Buzzfeed.
"The only thing holding them back is the cost of the flight," he said.
In the weeks after Trump signed an executive order directing immigration officials to stop separating families, reports surfaced that immigrants and their families were being forced to pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars in airfare to reunite.
Miles 4 Migrants has booked flights for 151 people since forming in 2016, and its directors expect to help 390 more following this week's donations.
More than 2,500 children were separated from their parents by Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy, and the administration missed a court-ordered deadline at the end of July to reunite every family.
According to a court filing by Trump officials this week, 559 children remain separated from their parents, while an untold number of reunited families lack the funds needed to get them to their extended families in the United States.
Ruiz attributed the enthusiastic response to Wilensky's tweet to the widespread outrage over the family separation crisis and the desire of many Americans to directly combat Trump's violation of families' human rights.
"What would you do if you were separated from your family?" he said to Buzzfeed. "[Donors] see this as something very simple and a very tangible way to make a difference."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.