Venezuelan Immigrant Temporarily Released From ICE Custody to Donate Kidney to Brother

Joanna Hernandez | April 4, 2025, 3:30 pm

Brothers Alfredo Pacheco Gonzalez and Jose Gregorio Gonzalez on April 4, 2025. (Provided)

A Venezuelan man seeking to donate a kidney to his younger brother has been granted a temporary release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, custody.

Alfredo Pacheco Gonzalez, 37, is battling kidney failure. Brother Jose Gregorio Gonzalez, 43, was set to become his donor before ICE arrested him outside their suburban Cicero home in March.

The brothers were reunited Friday after the Resurrection Project filed a humanitarian parole application on the family’s behalf, seeking Gregorio Gonzalez’s temporary release from ICE.

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“I’m so happy and excited; words can’t describe how I feel,” Pacheco Gonzalez told WTTW News. “I spoke to the doctor recently, and I shared the news about my brother’s release. She told me to call once he’s out to schedule a time to start the tests for the process and schedule a date for the surgery. That was another layer of great news.”

More than 1,800 people have signed a petition supporting Gregorio Gonzalez’s temporary release.

Erendira Rendón, chief programs officer for the Resurrection Project, called his release “a victory for humanity and compassion.”

“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,” Rendón said in a statement. “We are grateful to everyone who stood with the Gonzalez family and our broader immigrant community as we fought to correct this grave injustice.”

Pacheco Gonzalez has a pending asylum application and a work permit. He said he came to the U.S. three years ago to provide a better life for his wife and three children. Since being diagnosed with kidney failure, however, he has had to slow down. Pacheco Gonzalez said his brother’s release has brought hope for the future.

“Until this morning, he (Gregorio Gonzalez) had no idea whether he would be deported or reunited with his brother,” Tovia Siegel, director of organizing and leadership at the Resurrection Project, said in a statement. “I witnessed their emotional first embrace after more than a month apart—Alfredo told me he had been counting every single day of their separation. While we celebrate this victory with a one-year stay of removal, we must remember the bigger picture. José came here, like many immigrants, seeking safety and with a mission to save his brother’s life. People in these circumstances shouldn’t be detained in the first place.”