A Chicago-area man with kidney failure is fighting for his life, while his brother who planned to donate a kidney is now facing an ICE custody battle.

It has been three years since Alfredo Pacheco Gonzalez has seen his wife and three kids.

“Sometimes my wife (in Venezuela) tells me that one of our sons is sitting alone,” said Pacheco Gonzalez, who spoke in Spanish. “She asks him what’s wrong, and he replies, ‘I’m thinking of my dad.’ That breaks my heart.”

Pacheco Gonzalez has been renting a basement for the past three years, sharing the same dream that thousands of others have when they migrate to the United States: a better life. He began working full-time in a factory, hoping to provide for his family.

“I wanted a better future for my kids, something I have not been able to accomplish since I got sick,” Pacheco Gonzalez said.

In 2023, Pacheco Gonzalez was diagnosed with kidney failure, with only 2% kidney function remaining.

“I still remember the doctor telling me he had good and bad news: ‘The good news is that you’re not going to die, but the bad news is if you don’t start dialysis, you’re going to die,’” Pacheco Gonzalez said.

Pacheco Gonzalez’s life changed overnight. He now depends on dialysis three times per week to stay alive.

But he is luckier than some: His older brother wants to donate his kidney.

“Once he learned I was sick, he volunteered to help,” Pacheco Gonzalez said. “He told me, “‘You have to live; you have three young kids.’ We have always been close.”

His brother, Jose Gregorio Gonzalez, is now facing deportation back to Venezuela. Earlier this month, he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents outside the home they share. Gregorio Gonzalez was nearly deported last year; however, his attorney said that since he wasn’t considered a threat, he was allowed to remain in the Chicago area.

“He wasn’t deported because at the time there weren’t deportation flights to Venezuela,” said Tovia Siegel, the director of organizing and leadership at the Resurrection Project. “And so, he was instead released under supervision with an ankle monitor. Now it’s possible, that flights are resuming, he could be deported.”

The Resurrection Project is representing Gregorio Gonzalez and filing a humanitarian parole application, seeking his temporary release from ICE so he can donate his kidney to save his brother’s life.

“Because he has a prior deportation order, he was at higher risk,” Siegel said. “Despite the government knowing he was here, despite him not having any criminal record, despite him waiting to donate his kidney to his brother, the government took it upon themselves to put him in jail.”

Pacheco Gonzalez said for the past year his brother had become his caretaker while he underwent dialysis. They worked together delivering Amazon packages.

“It’s at the discretion of the federal administration,” Siegel said. “It’s going to be a hard fight ahead, which is why we need all the support that we can get.”

Pacheco Gonzalez has a pending asylum application and a work permit. With no legal status to visit his family in Venezuela, he is in west suburban Cicero battling kidney failure without his loved ones by his side.

“I have faith that the government is going to give him an opportunity, because my brother isn’t a bad person,” Pacheco Gonzalez said. “I have hope. I didn’t have it before. I felt so alone.”

The Resurrection Project said it has local support from state representatives and has launched an online petition in hopes of getting public help.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

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