Boarding a commercial flight demands a quiet act of faith. You trust the TSA did its job. You trust federal databases flagged the people who shouldn’t be there. You trust – perhaps naively – that someone the United States government already expelled from this country isn’t sitting a few rows behind you, plotting something unthinkable. That’s the deal. We play by the rules, and the government keeps us breathing.
So what do you call it when that same government has encountered a dangerous individual at the border three separate times, removed him twice, and still couldn’t stop him from boarding a domestic flight and allegedly threatening to detonate a bomb mid-air? Fifty-two people on a Newark-to-New Orleans route just lived that nightmare. And honestly, they’re lucky it didn’t end worse.
From Fox News:
A Honduran illegal alien accused of attempting to enter the cockpit of a United Airlines flight after allegedly claiming to have a bomb had previously been deported from the United States twice, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Fox News.
Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto was arrested by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office after United Airlines Flight 2174 landed at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport after a frightening midair disturbance Monday night.
Let that story settle for a second. A man this country already kicked out – twice – allegedly waltzed onto a Boeing 737 MAX 9 and tried to breach the cockpit. Here’s how we got here.
Three strikes and he’s still here
DHS laid out the timeline, and it reads like a case study in institutional failure. Border Patrol nabbed Gomez-Alberto near El Indio, Texas, in September 2011. Deported. They caught him again near Columbus, New Mexico, in October 2014. Deported again. Third time, 2019, near San Ysidro, California.
This time? An immigration judge ordered his release in January 2020, pending removal proceedings. Pending. As in, go ahead and disappear into the interior of the country we just caught you sneaking into for the third time. Which – surprise – is apparently exactly what happened.
He now faces charges including bomb threat, terroristic threat, and disorderly conduct. Forty-six passengers and six crew members got to experience the consequences of that judge’s decision firsthand.
Brace yourself for more
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: this is going to happen again. Probably more often. With Democrats wielding greater political power and treating border enforcement like a moral failing rather than a national obligation, every incentive points toward more Gomez-Albertos slipping through the cracks. Sanctuary city policies actively obstruct ICE. Progressive lawmakers fight deportation funding at every turn. The entire Democratic posture toward immigration treats the word “illegal” like a slur instead of a legal designation.
Each weakened enforcement tool, each released detainee, each dollar stripped from border security is a gamble – not with political capital, but with the safety of ordinary Americans who just want to fly home without someone threatening to blow up the plane.
The 46 passengers aboard Flight 2174 never agreed to those odds. Neither should you.
Key Takeaways
- A twice-deported Honduran national allegedly threatened to bomb a domestic United Airlines flight.
- Border Patrol apprehended him three times across three states over eight years – and he still stayed.
- An immigration judge released him in 2020; he never left the country.
- Democratic resistance to border enforcement virtually guarantees more dangerous incidents like this.
Source: Fox News