Ortega “Secretly” Receives Planes of Deported Nicaraguans
Since Trump took office, five flights with deportees have landed in Managua. They arrive on the first and third Thursday of each month.
During the first two months of Donald Trump’s administration, five flights with Nicaraguan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Managua, according to an analysis by CONFIDENCIAL based on information from platforms that record flights carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement air operations, known as ICE Air.
Four of the five flights departed from Alexandria International Airport in Louisiana and one from Houston, Texas. All were operated by Global X Airlines (Global Crossing), one of six airlines that are subcontracted by Classic Air Charters, a company that has contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The flights arrive in Nicaragua on the first and third Thursdays each month. The most recent flight arrived in Managua on Thursday, March 20, 2025 at 12:02 pm, with the number G6-6194, in an aircraft with registration number N276GX.
All flights have used the same number, “Global X G66194,” as recorded on the FlightAware and Avionio air tracking platforms.
The arrivals of these aircraft are not registered on Nicaragua’s National and International Airports Administration Company (EAAI) platform, CONFIDENCIAL confirmed. However, they do appear on the air tracking platforms and have been documented with photos and videos by Nicaraguan aviation enthusiasts on their social media pages.
At the Managua airport, the arrivals of flights are handled by the Police through their Airport Security and Protection Directorate, and the Army through its Airport Protection and Security Detachment, under the DID, with immigration officers. The planes are sent to a remote runway for private flights so that they have no contact with other passengers departing and arriving at the terminal.
The first, second, fourth and fifth deportee flights under Trump arrived in Managua from Alexandria International Airport in Alexandria, Louisiana, on January 23, February 6, March 6, and March 20, respectively, all between 11:28 a.m. and 12:02 p.m.
The third flight arrived at 8:43 a.m. on February 20 from George Bush International Airport in Houston, Texas.
The Nicaraguan migrants deported from the United States were transported on Airbus A320 aircraft. These planes have a maximum capacity of 180 passengers, although data on the number and identities of deportees who have arrived in these two months have been kept secret.
Starting in mid-2019, the Daniel Ortega-Rosario Murillo regime suspended the publication of press releases with figures on the arrival of returnees.
On the Mondays following the landing of flights with Nicaraguans deported from the United States, the Ministry of the Interior (MINT) would include in its weekly report the “steps taken” with the repatriated Nicaraguans, without specifying the number.
However, January 27 of this year was the last time the MINT indicated that they had attended to “repatriated nationals from Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States.” The next four flights landing in Nicaragua with deportees from the U.S. have been received in absolute silence.
Daniel Ortega is one of the few leaders in the region who has not publicly complained about Trump’s massive deportation campaign. On February 3 of this year, when he participated in the XII Extraordinary Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance ALBA-TCP, Ortega called for “respect for the human rights of migrants.”
“They should be respected!,” demanded the Nicaraguan dictator, but without referring directly to the Nicaraguans deported from the United States.
“They are treating them as criminals, accusing them of being criminals, drug traffickers, without any proof, without any trial and without any sentence that says that these citizens have committed any crime. They simply discredit them in the most brutal way, and then kick them out of their territory,” said the dictator ironically, although he did not oppose receiving his compatriots.
More than 26,000 deported from Mexico and Central America
CONFIDENCIAL built a database with Central American press reports in which the arrivals of flights with deportees are documented, as well as data retrieved from a report on flights promoted by ICE Air, written by Thomas Cartwright of the group Witness at the Border, which has been tracking U.S. deportation flights since 2020.
The data reveals that at least 26,124 migrants deported from the United States arrived in Central America and Mexico aboard 79 military and charter flights since January 21 of this year, when Trump’s second term began.
Mexico is the country that has received the most deported migrants. As of March 3, 19,663 deportees had arrived in Mexico. According to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, 4,052 are non-Mexicans. These deportation figures include those who have arrived by both air and land.
According to Cartwright’s report, based on FlightAware data, there are records of 13 flights with deportees, five of which departed from El Paso and six from Harlingen, both cities in Texas, and two from Yuma, Arizona.
During the three weeks following Trump’s inauguration, Mexico received one flight with migrants. However, starting the fourth week –in mid-February– the average increased to four. Flights with deportees to other Mexican cities such as Tapachula and Villahermosa, located in the south of the country, also resumed.
Mexico has also carried out four flights with deportees to Guatemala, three to Honduras and one to Venezuela.
Over 5,500 deported to the “Northern Triangle
In Central America, Guatemala is the country that has received the most flights with deportees. According to Cartwright’s data, 24 flights –seven of which were military flights– have arrived with an estimated 2,241 people.
Honduras surpassed 2,241 deportees in the first six weeks of Trump’s term. There are records of 22 flights, two of which were in military aircraft. One of these flights was in combination with deportees bound for Peru.
A flight with 176 Venezuelan deportees arrived at the joint military base at Soto Cana, Honduras. The Venezuelans were subsequently transferred in a Conviasa plane to their home country.
375 Honduran migrants were deported from Mexico in three groups. Two flights were in January and another in February. Another 550 deportees were transferred by land.
From El Salvador there are records of 11 flights arriving with deportees, one of which was on military aircraft. The first flight occurred on January 29 of this year from Harlingen, Texas. According to local media, 80 Salvadorans arrived on this flight.. This group traveled aboard a Global X plane.
Costa Rica and Panama receive 500 non continental deportees
The governments of Panama and Costa Rica made agreements with U.S. authorities to serve as a “bridge” in the deportation process of non continental migrants. This is how the United States managed to deport 500 immigrants who were on a waiting list to be expelled from U.S. soil.
Three flights arrived in Panama from the U.S. on February 12, 14 and 15 of this year, with a total of 299 migrants from Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkey, China, Vietnam, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Russia, Somalia, Cameroon, Eritrea, Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana and Afghanistan.
Of the 299 migrants, 187 agreed to be deported to their countries of origin, and the authorities placed them in a hotel downtown to await repatriation. The remaining 112 who refused to leave were sent to the San Vicente shelter in Meteti, Darien. At the beginning of March, part of this group was relocated to the center of Panama.
“We have been told that they have no criminal records. They are families, they are illegal migrants who were captured at the U.S. borders,” said Panama’s deputy foreign minister, Carlos Ruiz Hernandez.
Two flights of deportees arrived in Costa Rica from the U.S. According to local media, the first flight arrived on February 20 of this year with 26 deported migrants from China, 17 from Armenia, ten from Turkey, nine from Afghanistan, eight from Russia, eight from Georgia, seven from Vietnam, six from Azerbaijan, five from Iran, four from Jordan, three from Kazakhstan and two from Ghana. Half of these were minors.
On February 26, a second flight arrived with 65 deported migrants from Nepal, China, Russia, India and Congo, including 16 minors.
The migrants are transported by bus some 300 kilometers to the Temporary Migrant Attention Center, located in the town of Corredores, on the border with Panama.
Deportations slower than in the Biden era
Although deportations have gained more visibility following Trump’s inauguration, the numbers of flights and deportees is lower than the migrant removals carried out during the same period of President Joe Biden.
Under Trump, there have been some 126 flights with deportees as of February of this year. That is below the number of flights recorded in 2023 and 2024 under Biden, when there were 127 and 137 respectively.
The reduction is related to the drop in border crossings. There are now fewer migrants to whom the U.S. immigration service can apply “expedited removal” measures without the need for an order from an immigration judge, and which is used to remove those caught within 100 miles of the border and within 14 days of arrival.
The largest number of deportee flights are departing from Texas, with 35 reported from Harlingen in February, 20 from El Paso, 11 from San Antonio, and six from Laredo. Also reported are 20 flights from Alexandria, Louisiana.