A Honduran man accused of trying to enter the cockpit of a United Airlines flight after claiming he had a bomb was granted asylum in 2019, after telling immigration officials he feared being killed in Honduras because he is transgender, the Department of Homeland Security said.
Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto, 34, received asylum from an immigration judge after his third attempted illegal entry into the United States. DHS said the case exposed weaknesses in the asylum system.
In the application excerpt provided by DHS, Gomez-Alberto indicated that he feared harm if returned to his home country. He allegedly wrote that he feared being killed by private citizens or police because he is transgender.
“This criminal illegal alien attempted to storm the cockpit, hijack a plane and claimed he had a bomb,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said. He added that Gomez-Alberto was in custody and said the asylum system had allowed him to remain in the country.
Gomez-Alberto was arrested after United Airlines Flight 2174 landed in New Orleans on Nov. 9. He is accused of attempting to breach the cockpit.
He is being held without bond on charges of terrorizing, communicating false information about planned arson and being a fugitive from justice. Emergency radio audio recorded during the response captured someone saying, “We have him at the back door. The back door has been breached by him.”
DHS said Border Patrol first apprehended Gomez-Alberto after he entered the United States near El Indio, Texas, in September 2011. He was deported after that encounter, and deported again after being apprehended near Columbus, New Mexico, in October 2014.
Border Patrol arrested him a third time in 2019 after an attempted illegal entry near San Ysidro, California. ICE released him from custody in January 2020 following an immigration judge’s order, while removal proceedings were pending. DHS says an immigration judge later granted him asylum.
ICE lodged a detainer with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 10, asking to be notified before Gomez-Alberto is released. The Department of Justice and the sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
