DALLAS — The Portugal men's soccer team flew on a Global Crossing Airlines aircraft en route to Dallas on 4 July, using the same airline that operates U.S. immigration removal flights. The aircraft assigned to the team carried tail number N837VA, an Airbus that has been linked to more than 1,580 removal-related flights since May 2023.

The Portugal squad has flown with American Airlines and TAP Air Portugal during the tournament, according to flight records. Ricardo Quaresma of the Portuguese football federation stated in an email that Fifa organized the 4 July GlobalX flight.

The aircraft with tail number N837VA flew removal-related flights on 3 July and 5 July, the day before and the day after the Portugal team's travel date. ICE Flight Monitor, a group housed at Human Rights First that tracks ICE flights using publicly available aviation data, documented the aircraft's removal flight activity.

A different GlobalX aircraft, tail number N837VC, was used in March 2025 to deport more than 200 Venezuelans to the Cecot prison in El Salvador. A judge ordered those deportation flights to turn around, but the flights departed and landed in El Salvador regardless.

El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, posted a video showing the aircraft with tail number N837VA. The visual documentation tied the specific aircraft to operations in El Salvador.

Anthony Enriquez, an attorney at the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center, addressed the overlap between sports travel and immigration enforcement flights. He said the simultaneous usage of GlobalX flights for athletes and deportations builds "normalization" around human rights abuses.

Enriquez said, "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."

The airline industry's relationship with immigration removal flights has seen shifts in recent months. Avelo Airlines ended its deportation flights contract with ICE earlier this year. Avelo Airlines stated the ICE agreement was not profitable enough for the company. Thousands petitioned against Avelo's government contract before the company ended its agreement with ICE.

The use of an aircraft with documented removal flight history for a World Cup-bound national team connects the tournament's logistics to U.S. immigration enforcement operations. The aircraft N837VA conducted more than 1,580 removal-related flights since May 2023, according to ICE Flight Monitor data. The March 2025 deportation of over 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador's Cecot prison went ahead despite a judicial order to turn the flights around.

The contrast between the soccer team's tournament travel and the aircraft's enforcement record has drawn criticism from human rights advocates, who argue that airlines operating both sports charter and deportation flights face scrutiny over their role in immigration policy. Avelo's departure from ICE contracts followed public petitions and profitability concerns, but GlobalX continues to operate both types of flights on the same airframe.