By Joshua Arnold

On Monday, a Honduran national attempted to force his way into the cockpit of a United Airlines flight from Newark to New Orleans. According to a news release issued by the Department of Homeland Security, Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto claimed to have a bomb. Details are sketchy, but somehow the flight crew persuaded Gomez-Alberto to go to the back of the plane. When the plane landed safely, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested him and charged him with communicating false information of planned arson, terrorizing, and being a fugitive from justice, according to Fox News.

No information is currently available about the man’s possible motive. However, what is known throws a spotlight on the troublesome problem of asylum fraud.

According to DHS, Gomez-Alberto attempted to enter the United States on three separate occasions. In 2011, he crossed into Texas and was quickly caught and deported. In 2014, he crossed into New Mexico and was quickly caught and deported.

In 2019, Gomez-Alberto crossed into California and claimed asylum. According to an excerpt of his asylum claim shared by DHS, Gomez-Alberto marked “yes” in answer to the question, “Do you fear harm or mistreatment if you return to your home country?” He then added the explanation, “I am also afraid that I will be killed — either by private citizens or the police — in both of these countries, because I am transgender.” On the basis of Gomez-Alberto’s claims, an immigration judge allowed him to remain in the county until the date of his court hearing.

The judge’s decision means that, for the last seven years, Gomez-Alberto was not an illegal immigrant because he was present on a legal, if conditional, basis. However, he reportedly did not conduct himself as a model immigrant — the type of refugee America would gladly retain. According to DHS, Gomez-Alberto accumulated a criminal history including a felony bomb threat, felony threat-terroristic state offenses, and disorderly conduct.

However, obviously, foreign nationals who try to hijack commercial airlines do not get to keep their asylum status. So, on Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement filed a detainer with Louisiana authorities, asking them to hold Gomez-Alberto until ICE can collect him.

Fortunately for ICE, the targeted flight was southbound, and the attempted hijacker was imprisoned in Louisiana. There, state law requires local law enforcement agencies to honor ICE detainers, and Jefferson Parish is reportedly one of the top localities doing so.

If the flight had been bound for Newark, that would have created an immigration headache, as the Newark Police Department’s official policy since 2013 has been to “decline ICE detainer requests.” (One wonders if the department would have made an exception in such a high-profile case.)

After the midterm election loss, President Donald Trump gave his own immigration policy mixed results, saying he believed that he “got an A+ for closing up the border” and “very high marks for getting the bad ones out,” but that many voters were angry that “we also took people that had good jobs, that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally.” Trump concluded that his immigration enforcement policy “was too tough.”

Trump added that he would “love to do something on immigration” with Congressional Democrats, although it remains to be seen whether Democrats will agree to work with a White House staff led by immigration hawk Stephen Miller, Trump’s new chief of staff.

At the very least, argued Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Oka.) on “Washington Watch,” “We can’t have amnesty. We can’t reward that behavior.” America should especially not reward the dangerous behavior of foreign nationals like Gomez-Alberto. After trying to hijack a plane, he would probably rank near the top of anyone’s deportation list — whatever asylum status he temporarily held.

Indeed, the Gomez-Alberto incident provides an occasion to reconsider the implementation of America’s asylum policy.

In a March 22, 2025 executive order, “Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court,” President Trump warned:

“The immigration bar, and powerful Big Law pro bono practices, frequently coach clients to conceal their past or lie about their circumstances when asserting their asylum claims, all in an attempt to circumvent immigration policies enacted to protect our national security and deceive the immigration authorities and courts into granting them undeserved relief. Gathering the necessary information to refute these fraudulent claims imposes an enormous burden on the Federal Government.”

As just one example, the Biden Department of Justice announced on January 25, 2023 that a husband-wife team of immigration lawyers, Ilona Dzhamgarova and Arthur Arcadian, had “each pled guilty to conspiracy to commit immigration fraud.”

“Among other things,” the Justice Department said, “DZHAMGAROVA advised clients to seek asylum by falsely claiming that they were members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community who suffered persecution in their native countries, when DZHAMGAROVA fully understood that these clients were not members of that community and suffered no such persecution.”

In light of these facts, it’s worth scrutinizing the asylum claim of Gomez-Alberto more closely. Based on his repeated attempts to cross the border, Gomez-Alberto clearly wanted to enter the United States. Based on his criminal history, Gomez-Alberto was clearly willing to break the law. Based on his multiple false bomb threats, Gomez-Alberto was clearly willing to lie, even when getting caught could lead to severe consequences.

Would such a man stoop to falsely claiming a transgender identity under penalty of perjury if it would get him inside the United States? His character seems capable of such unscrupulous behavior.

Was he coached to do so by immigration lawyers? It’s unclear whether Gomez-Alberto had any connection to Dzhamgarova, or other immigration lawyers perpetuating similar schemes. But his actions do seem consistent with the criminal scheme described by the Biden Justice Department.

To be clear, the argument here has nothing to do with whether the United States should accept transgender-identifying refugees from other countries. The argument is when an ill-defined class receives special treatment and minimal scrutiny, unscrupulous actors who do not belong to the class will pretend to belong in hopes of receiving the same minimal scrutiny. This is so obvious that even the Biden administration — which had a clear soft spot for both transgender-identifying individuals and illegal immigrants — recognized the scheme and prosecuted immigration attorneys who enabled it.

The only remedy to this obvious weak point in America’s immigration system is to eliminate special treatment and minimal scrutiny for groups that cannot be reliably defined.

In May 2026, the Trump Department of Homeland Security empowered ICE to crack down on asylum fraud. “Historically, ICE has depended on the discipline of immigration judges and the enforcement of criminal fraud laws to deter this conduct, but ICE has its own tools. Now, thanks to this directive, ICE attorneys have greater authority to enforce the law and stop the abuse of our asylum system by illegal aliens and attorneys,” summarized DHS General Counsel James Percival.

But will those safeguards endure? That depends on whether Congressional Democrats or the next Democratic administration are willing to preserve any vestiges of the Trump administration’s ICE policy — not a likely prospect. Yet such safeguards are essential to weeding out fraudulent asylum applicants who just want to enter America for nefarious purposes. Hopefully, the next iteration of immigration enforcement will stay alert to this threat before another noncitizen tries to hijack another plane.

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

This article originally appeared here.