A Venezuelan man who was arrested by immigration authorities last month before he was able to become an organ donor to help his ailing brother is being released from detention, according to the Chicago-based nonprofit representing the family.
José Gregorio González, who is being held in the Clay County Detention Center in Indiana, could be released as early as Friday, an advocate and a spokesperson for The Resurrection Project confirmed to NBC News on Thursday.
The nonprofit had been rallying community members in the Chicago area in support of the brothers, organizing a vigil Monday evening to demand González’s release on humanitarian parole.
“This marks a victory for humanity and compassion,” Eréndira Rendón, chief program officer for The Resurrection Project, said in a statement. “ICE will temporarily release José Gregorio González, allowing him to save his brother’s life through kidney donation.”
Rendón applauded the decision, saying it “recognizes that our fundamental human rights transcend immigration status.”
“We are grateful to everyone who stood with the Gonzalez family,” she added.
NBC News has reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment.
González, 43, arrived in the United States from Venezuela last year to reunite with his brother, who was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease, or kidney failure, in December 2023. Since then, González had been caring for his sick younger brother, José Alfredo Pacheco. They share the same mother.
“My brother is a good man, not a criminal in Venezuela or here,” Pacheco said during Monday’s vigil. “He came only with the hope of donating his kidney to me.”
A father to 9-year-old twins and a 17-year-old, Pacheco said, “I want to live to see them grow up.”
Being released on humanitarian parole means González will be granted a provisional reprieve from deportation, letting him stay temporarily in the United States to care for Pacheco and go through with the lifesaving organ donation.
The specific terms on which ICE agreed to temporarily release González have not been made public.
González is the living kidney donor Pacheco desperately needs, because, according to the letter, even in the case of blood group incompatibility between the brothers, González could secure a transplant for Pacheco by participating in a paired kidney exchange, which connects pairs of compatible recipients and donors.
Participating in a paired kidney exchange would mean González could save two lives, his brother’s and a second kidney recipient’s. “I think it speaks to José Gregorio’s character,” Siegel said.
Pacheco, 37, goes to a center three times a week at 4 a.m. for four-hour dialysis sessions. On March 3, he had just returned home from his dialysis session when several ICE agents approached González and took him into custody.
González sought asylum in the United States. But after he did not pass an initial credible fear interview, immigration authorities placed a deportation order on him. He was still allowed to remain in the United States under ICE supervision, which is not uncommon, according to Tovia Siegel, director of organizing and leadership at The Resurrection Project’s Immigrant Justice department.
Siegel said ICE was aware of González’s location at the time of his arrest because he had been wearing a GPS ankle monitor as part of his order of supervision.
ICE uses such orders to place immigrants in one of its supervision programs to monitor undocumented people and keep tabs on them. The programs, which are meant to serve as alternatives to detention, help immigration officials keep track of those who are not priorities for deportation or need more time to seek legal alternatives to remain in the U.S. According to ICE, nearly 179,000 people are being monitored through such programs nationwide.
González has no criminal record and had been complying with the requirements of his order of supervision since he was first placed in the program last year when he entered the U.S., according to Siegel.
Pacheco. who has a pending asylum case and qualifies for Medicaid under a state program, has been waitlisted for a kidney transplant at the University of Illinois Hospital.
Without González’s kidney donation, Pacheco would have had to wait about five years to receive a “cadaver kidney transplant,” according to a letter from Pacheco’s doctors obtained by NBC News.
“Unfortunately, the mortality on dialysis while waiting for kidney transplantation is extremely high,” the letter reads. “Living donor kidney transplantation ensures the highest chance of survival.”
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