Latest

French National Soccer Team Uses ICE Deportation Flights for World Cup Travel

The French team has chartered planes operated by Global Crossing Airlines, a company heavily involved in U.S. immigration deportations, for domestic travel during the 2026 World Cup.

Jul 9, 2026, 10:32 AM Guardian US

World Cupevent ICEorganization Global Crossing Airlinesperson ICE Flight Monitortopic Kylian Mbappperson Francegeography Paraguaytopic El Salvadorperson Sierra Randolphperson Bostontopic London-born Bayern Munichperson Michael Oliseperson

Dig Deeper

Ask the newsroom to chase missing context.

Turn this on, then tap a highlighted entity or source phrase in the article.

The French men's national soccer team, including star player Kylian Mbappé, has been using Global Crossing Airlines (GlobalX) for at least three domestic flights between their World Cup games and their base camp in Boston.

GlobalX is a charter airline that has operated more than half of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removal flights in 2024 and 2025. A 2025 Guardian investigation revealed that GlobalX played a central role in the Trump administration's mass deportation program, transporting thousands of detainees domestically and internationally without notice, often to locations far from their families and legal counsel. Experts have described these practices as violations of constitutional due process rights.

The specific aircraft used by the French team after their match against Paraguay on July 4 has flown 44 deportation-related flights in 2026 alone and about 950 since 2022. According to data from ICE Flight Monitor, this plane was used to transfer detained immigrants from an Arizona detention center to Louisiana as recently as July 1.

Sierra Randolph, a data manager for ICE Flight Monitor, noted, “It’s common for certain carriers to oscillate between operating ICE flights and other private entity charter flights, including athletic teams, within a week or even on the same day.”

The Guardian's investigation began after a video posted on the French team’s official Instagram showed players, including Michael Olise, the London-born Bayern Munich forward, boarding a flight from Philadelphia to Boston following France’s 1-0 victory over Paraguay. Flight tracking data confirmed the aircraft departed Philadelphia International Airport around midnight on July 5 and arrived at Boston Logan International Airport about 1 a.m.

GlobalX has also flown detainees to destinations such as El Salvador’s Cecot, a notorious mega-prison.

This revelation highlights the overlap between commercial charter services used by high-profile sports teams and those involved in contentious immigration enforcement operations in the United States.

Sources

Guardian US: France national team uses ICE deportation planes for World Cup travel by Sophie Sullivan and Pablo Iglesias Maurer

Reader Comments

Join the discussion

Loading comments.

Compare Coverage

Left-weighted source mix

1 source / emerging

1 reviewed source contribute to this publication-level source-mix readout.

Left 1 Center 0 Right 0 Unrated 0

Guardian US

Left -70

France national team uses ICE deportation planes for World Cup travel

Factuality: Not reviewed yet
Ownership: Unknown
Profile: 10% complete

Read original Captured Jul 9, 2026, 10:07 AM

Source-balance is publication-level context. It is not an article truth rating.

Guardian US Captured Jul 9, 2026, 10:07 AM · Original story

Left-weighted source mix 1 of 1 source reviewed

-70

Reviewed source ratings are weighted by confidence. Unrated sources stay visible but do not affect the score.

1reviewed 0unrated 1source

Guardian US Editorial review / 60% confidence Left -70

Bias detector 23/100

Bold News detected low framing pressure from source perspective around Left-weighted source mix, which could steer readers toward the perspective of the rated source mix.

Guardian US35/100 / bias -70

Article weight system 23/100

Overview: This article shows limited framing pressure in the available source text. The French team has chartered planes operated by Global Crossing Airlines, a company heavily involved in U.S.

View full methodology

Collect attached source records, extracted paragraphs, article text, source ratings, named entities, and framing signals.
Source mix starts with 1 reviewed of 1 attached source; reviewed feed scores are confidence-weighted on the -100 to +100 scale.
Framing pressure is 23/100 from 1 detected cue: loaded terms, negative adjectives, timeline/title wording, uncertainty, causal claims, opinion markers, and source perspective.
Negative adjective/framing count is 0 for the available source text.
Timeline/title wording did not add pressure for this article.
Named entities and article tags identify relevance; they help attach cues to people, places, organizations, and topics, but they do not create the bias score by themselves.