Venezuelan man arrested by ICE to be released temporarily to donate kidney to his brother
A Venezuelan man from Cicero will be temporarily released from ICE custody to donate a kidney to his ailing brother, according to immigration advocates.
Jose Gregorio Gonzalez is set to be released according to members of the Resurrection Project, a local immigration advocacy group, who said ICE officials had confirmed his likely release Friday. He has been held at Clay County Detention Center in Indiana since his arrest March 3.
"This marks a victory for humanity and compassion," said Erendira Rendón, Chief Programs Officer for The Resurrection Project, in a statement. "This decision recognizes that our fundamental human rights transcend immigration status and that our communities have the power to demand that our humanity be recognized. We are grateful to everyone who stood with the Gonzalez family and our broader immigrant community as we fought to correct this grave injustice.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Jose Alfredo Pacheco Gonzalez, 37, was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure in late 2023, not long after arriving in Chicago from Venezuela in search of a better life for his twin 9-year-old sons and 17-year-old daughter, he said at a news conference in Berwyn this week. All three children are back home in Venezuela. He has a pending asylum application, which can take years to resolve and prevents him from leaving the country.
Doctors say he needs a life-saving kidney transplant, and his brother, who has lived in the U.S. since 2024, was set to be that donor before he was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs outside their Cicero home last month. He faces potential deportation to Venezuela.
Peter Meinecke, an attorney with the Resurrection Project who is representing Jose Gregorio Gonzalez, previously told the Sun-Times the 43-year-old potential donor isn’t trying to fight the deportation, but hopes to stay in the U.S. to save his brother’s life through the donation.
“Relief in this case is not necessarily that Jose Gregorio gets to stay, it could very much mean that he still goes back,” Meinecke told the Sun-Times Monday. “Delaying deportation would allow him to save his brother’s life.”
While the two still have yet to be confirmed as a match Jose Gregorio Gonzalez could still donate his kidney and find one for his brother through a kidney exchange, which connects donors with compatible recipients.
Contributing: Emmanuel Camarillo