Growing up, Kevin Gonzalez, 18, dreamed of going to college and becoming a lawyer. But as he lay in a hospital bed in Chicago this winter, his gaunt frame ravaged by colon cancer, those aspirations narrowed to one final wish: seeing his parents before he died.
Fulfilling that dream meant a desperate fight against time in his final weeks of life as his father, Isidoro Gonzales Avilés, and his mother, Norma Anabel Ramirez Amaya, sat in President Trump’s immigration-detention system.
Kevin Gonzalez, an American citizen, was being treated at the University of Chicago Medical Center, but his parents, Mexican citizens on the other side of the southwestern border, had already been deported multiple times after illegal crossings. That made it nearly impossible for them to get legal permission to return to the United States.
So last month, relatives said, the parents decided to cross once again illegally, this time to see their dying son, only to be apprehended on April 14 near the Arizona border. As they sat in a detention center and Mr. Gonzalez’s health faded, his family grew desperate. They pleaded his case to the Mexican consulate, to elected officials, to the news media, to anyone who would listen.
The cancer had spread to his stomach and lungs, they said. He could not eat solid foods. They just wanted to reunite him with his parents.
“It is the most important thing,” his older brother, Jovany Ramirez, 23, said in a telephone interview from Chicago, where he spent the past few months helping care for Mr. Gonzalez.
Department of Homeland Security officials asserted that Mr. Gonzalez’s father had a criminal history beyond immigration violations. According to the agency, Mr. Gonzalez’s father first entered the United States in 2000 and was charged with crimes that included sexual abuse, battery and theft. He was deported in 2011.
The agency did not respond to a request for additional details about those charges, including whether any had resulted in convictions, and The New York Times was unable to independently find records of those charges.
One of Kevin’s aunts, Nancy Ramirez, did respond: “He has a past, from before he was with my sister, and we don’t know anything about it,” she said about Isidoro Gonzales Avilés. “The important thing here is Kevin. He’s not here anymore.”
The Department of Homeland Security also said the parents had not requested humanitarian parole into the United States as they sought to get to their son in Chicago. They had applied for visitor visas, which were denied because of their earlier illegal entries.
Kevin Gonzalez was born in Chicago but moved to Mexico when he was young and grew up there, his family said. He sometimes flew back to Chicago to visit relatives, go to doctor’s appointments and get new lenses for his thick, black-rimmed glasses.
The teen had recently been having stomach troubles and losing weight, no matter how much he ate, his family said. So when he returned to Chicago this winter, he underwent a series of tests and learned he had Stage 4 colon cancer, Nancy Ramirez said.
As he grew frailer, Mr. Gonzalez, a dedicated student, insisted on keeping up with his homework from his Mexican high school, relatives said. His family bought him a maroon cap and gown and held a graduation ceremony in his hospital room.
His family posted videos of a visitor giving Mr. Gonzalez a Mexican soccer jersey, and him sleeping to the strains of a guitar ballad being strummed at his bedside.
On April 28, one of his doctors wrote letters pleading for his parents’ release from immigration custody, according to a copy of the letter Mr. Gonzalez’s family provided to Telemundo Chicago. “Kevin is not expected to survive long,” a letter said. “We request urgent attention so that Kevin may spend the final days of his life with his family.”
University of Chicago Medicine declined to comment on Mr. Gonzalez’s case, citing privacy laws.
This month, Kevin said goodbye to relatives in Chicago and flew to Durango, Mexico, to stay with his grandmother. His family figured they had a better chance at reuniting there than the United States.
On Friday, a judge granted his parents an expedited release from immigration custody after they pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of illegally crossing the border. They were deported Friday.
Once in Mexico, Mr. Gonzalez’s parents raced the 800 miles from the border city of Nogales to Durango, his brother said. With no direct flights, they caught a bus and made it to Mr. Gonzalez the next day.
A video recorded by Telemundo captured their reunion. Mr. Gonzalez called out, “Mama!” She fell weeping into his spindly arms, as did her husband.
Jovany Ramirez said he was glad his brother was able to hug their parents and tell his mother “Te quiero mucho” — I love you very much. But Mr. Ramirez said his parents’ detention had stolen too much time.
They were given “not even a day,” Mr. Ramirez said, “only hours.”
His brother died on Sunday.
Kirsten Noyes contributed research. Hamed Aleaziz contributed reporting from Washington, and James Wagner from Mexico City.
Jack Healy is based in Colorado and covers the west and southwest for The Times.
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