A plane used by the Portugal men's soccer team to fly to a World Cup match is the same one used daily for the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign, and brought dozens of Venezuelans to a Salvadoran mega-prison last year against a judge's orders.
Flight records reveal deportation link
Video shows Portugal flying on a Global Crossing Airlines (GlobalX) aircraft en route to Dallas on 4 July ahead of their match against Spain, with the plane's tail number, N837VA, clearly visible. A review of flight records for that Airbus shows it flew removal-related flights both the day before and after flying the Portuguese athletes.
That plane was also one of the aircraft at the heart of the US government's March 2025 deportation of more than 200 Venezuelans to the notorious mega-prison Cecot. Because the deportations were carried out without due process, a judge ordered the planes to turn around, but the flights departed and landed in El Salvador regardless. In a video posted by El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, the same plane and its tail number are visible.
FIFA and Portugal federation respond
In an email, Ricardo Quaresma of the Portuguese football federation said Fifa organized the 4 July GlobalX flight. The team has flown with various other airlines throughout the tournament, including American Airlines and TAP Air Portugal. Fifa has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
Donald Trump's long friendship with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, whom Trump has called a "great friend", has come under scrutiny this World Cup after a red card against the US men's team was dismissed following a personal phone call between the two leaders.
GlobalX's deportation operations
The Guardian has closely followed the Trump administration's deportation program, reviewing months of leaked GlobalX data in a 2025 investigation that showed the company has moved thousands of detainees around and out of the US under a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Detainees were often transported without notice to their families or legal counsel and have described being shackled at their hands and feet and not being told where their plane was headed. GlobalX has not responded to requests for comment.
The aircraft that flew football legend Cristiano Ronaldo and his Portugal team has also carried more people for deportation than most other planes under ICE's contract. It has conducted more than 1,580 removal-related flights since May 2023, making it one of the most commonly used aircraft in the Trump administration's mass deportation operation, according to data provided to the Guardian by ICE Flight Monitor. The group, housed at Human Rights First, tracks ICE flights using publicly available aviation data and publishes monthly reports on its findings.
Human rights concerns
Some of the Venezuelan men onboard the same aircraft that carried the Portugal team say they were wrongly accused of being gang members, and once brought to Cecot subsequently suffered physical and psychological abuse. Portugal is not the only team to have flown GlobalX during the World Cup. The Guardian first reported the France men's national team also used the airline for at least three flights, flying on it as recently as 12 July en route to Dallas for its semi-final match against Spain. The Daily Mail reported last month that the England and Iran national teams had also flown GlobalX throughout the tournament.
Anthony Enriquez, an attorney who leads the US advocacy and litigation team at the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center, says the simultaneous usage of GlobalX flights for both world-famous athletes and ICE deportations builds "normalization" around the human rights abuses committed under the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations. "The companies that are ferrying the footballers – they're really trying to downplay their role in a serious human rights crisis in the United States using sports and football and the World Cup to whitewash some of their other bad deeds," Enriquez said. He suggested that the football federations who vet the "sponsors that are engaged with their brand name … can make the conscious choice to withdraw from their contracts to engage in these deportation planes".
Earlier this year, budget carrier Avelo Airlines ended its deportation flights contract with ICE, saying the agreement wasn't profitable enough for the company, a decision that came months after thousands petitioned against Avelo's government contract.
