An illegal migrant who was deported twice from the United States got back in a third time by claiming to be transgender and HIV-positive — was rewarded with asylum — and this week tried to hijack a commercial flight at bomb-point. The system that let Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto stay is the same one that tells ordinary Americans their safety comes second to identity categories.
Gomez-Alberto, 34, first entered the U.S. illegally near El Indio, Texas, in September 2011 and was deported. He came back in October 2014 near Columbus, New Mexico, and was deported again. Both times, the system worked as designed: he was removed. Then in 2019, Gomez-Alberto walked up to a port of entry in San Ysidro, California, and claimed he was transgender, HIV-positive, and feared persecution in Honduras. That claim — unverified by any standard a normal citizen would recognize — was enough to let him argue his case before an immigration judge. He was granted asylum in 2020, according to law enforcement sources cited by the Daily Wire.
The policy that made this possible is the longstanding interpretation of "particular social group" under U.S. asylum law, expanded over successive administrations to cover gender identity and sexual orientation as qualifying categories for persecution claims. Once an applicant invokes that magic language, the burden effectively shifts. Gomez-Alberto's criminal history — which a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said includes felony bomb threat, felony terroristic threatening, and disorderly conduct — apparently did not disqualify him.
On Monday night, Gomez-Alberto boarded United Airlines Flight 2174 from Newark to New Orleans with 46 passengers and six crew members. He changed into all-black clothing, then tried to storm the cockpit while claiming he had a bomb, according to air traffic control audio reviewed by the New York Post. Flight crew managed to talk him into moving to the rear of the aircraft so the plane could land safely. After landing, Gomez-Alberto stayed on board and attempted to negotiate with police before being arrested by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. He was booked on charges of communicating false information of planned arson and terrorizing. ICE has lodged a detainer.
A DHS spokesperson issued the obligatory statement: "Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, criminal illegal aliens are NOT welcome in the United States." Fair enough. But Gomez-Alberto was welcomed — twice deported, re-entered, claimed a protected identity, and was given asylum by a judge operating under the rules the political class wrote. The Post Millennial noted he also told authorities he used marijuana. None of it raised a red flag.
The question isn't whether this administration will deport him now. It's who rewrote the rules so that a twice-deported illegal migrant with a criminal record could invoke the word "transgender" and get a stamp of approval to stay in the country — and how many others are walking through the same door.
