United Airlines hijacking suspect ID’d as previously deported transgender asylum recipient, DHS says

The previously deported Honduran man accused of trying to storm the cockpit of a United Airlines flight was granted asylum after saying he feared he would be killed in Honduras because he is transgender, the Department of Homeland Security told the Washington Examiner.In a statement issued Thursday morning, the DHS said Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto, 34, had been deported twice before returning to the United States and applying for asylum. The department said he told authorities he feared being killed in Honduras because he was transgender and that an immigration judge later granted his application during President Donald Trump’s first term. Recommended Stories Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto, 34, is shown in a photo released by the Department of Homeland Security. Authorities arrested him after he allegedly tried to storm the cockpit of United Airlines Flight 2174 and claimed to have a bomb on Nov. 9, 2026. (Photo courtesy of the Department of Homeland Security) Gomez-Alberto allegedly tried to storm the cockpit of United Flight 2174 on Monday and claimed to have a bomb. The incident prompted United to issue a Level 4 hijacking alert, the highest aviation threat level. The flight, which was traveling from Newark, New Jersey, to New Orleans, carried 46 passengers and six crew members. It landed safely, and authorities took Gomez-Alberto into custody. “This criminal illegal alien attempted to storm the cockpit, hijack a plane, and claimed he had a bomb,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement. “Thanks to law enforcement, he is now behind bars.”Gomez-Alberto was booked at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on charges of communicating false information about planned arson and terrorizing. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer on Tuesday asking local authorities to notify ICE before releasing him.The Daily Wire first reported Wednesday that Gomez-Alberto sought asylum and used the claim of being transgender on paperwork after arriving at the San Ysidro port of entry in 2019, and that an immigration judge granted his application in 2020 while Trump was still in office.Mullin said Gomez-Alberto had been able to “game the system” and pointed to the administration’s broader crackdown on asylum fraud. However, DHS did not identify the specifics of alleged fraud in Gomez-Alberto’s case.ICE ISSUES DETAINER FOR HONDURAN WHO ALLEGEDLY TRIED TO STORM COCKPIT MIDFLIGHTAmong the cases DHS cited was a Cuban smuggling operation in which six people were sentenced in Florida in October. DHS said a business involved in the scheme filed boilerplate asylum claims without clients’ knowledge or consent.In Illinois, immigration services operator Jose Gregorio Sosa Cardona was sentenced in May to nine years in prison for immigration fraud and other offenses. Prosecutors accused him of fabricating foreign police reports and political party membership letters to support clients’ asylum claims.