ICE detains organ donor for ailing brother; faces deportation as doctors warn time is running out
José Gregorio González came from Venezuela to help his brother, who has kidney failure. Now, the brother's lifesaving transplant is at risk and his doctor warn time is running out.
Time is running out for José Alfredo Pacheco, a dialysis patient in Illinois who needs a lifesaving kidney transplant. His donor and brother, José Gregorio González, has been in an immigration detention center for nearly a month and is at risk of being deported to Venezuela.
Community members in the Chicago area have been rallying in support of the brothers. They're gathering at a vigil Monday evening organized by The Resurrection Project, a Chicago-based nonprofit group representing the brothers, to demand González's release on humanitarian parole so he can donate a kidney to his sick brother.
With deportation flights to Venezuela resuming following a brief suspension on March 8, "there's incredible urgency because José Gregorio could be deported at any time now," Tovia Siegel, director of organizing and leadership at The Resurrection Project's Immigrant Justice Department, told NBC News. The group is providing legal representation to González.
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 younger brother. They share the same mother.
Pacheco, 37, goes to a center three times a week at 4 a.m. for four-hour dialysis sessions. On March 3, he was returning home from his dialysis session and González greeted him with breakfast, Siegel said. After having eaten, González stepped outside his home and was approached by several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who arrested him and took him to the Clay County Detention Center in Indiana, where he is being held.
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