José Alfredo Pacheco is on dialysis in Illinois and needs a kidney donor right away to save his life. Rafael González, his donor and brother, has been in an immigration holding centre for almost a month and could be sent back to Venezuela.
People in the Chicago area have been coming together to support the boys. They’re holding a vigil on Monday night put together by The Resurrection Project, a Chicago-based charity that works to help the brothers. They want González to be released on humanitarian parole so he can give his sick brother a kidney.
“There’s incredible urgency because José Gregorio could be deported at any time now,” Tovia Siegel, head of organising and leadership at The Resurrection Project’s Immigrant Justice Department, told NBC News. Deportation flights to Venezuela have resumed after a short break on March 8. These people are representing González in court.
43-year-old González came to the U.S. from Venezuela last year to be with his brother, who was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease, or kidney failure, in December 2023. González had been taking care of his younger brother ever since. They have the same mum.
Pacheco, who is 37 years old, goes to a centre three times a week at 4 a.m. for four hours of dialysis. González met him at the door with food on March 3 as he was coming home from dialysis, Siegel said. Then González went outside to eat. Several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents approached him and arrested him. They took him to the Clay County Detention Centre in Indiana, where he is being held.
González came to the United States to ask for refuge. But because he failed the first interview for genuine fear, immigration officials told him he had to leave the country. He could still stay in the US as long as ICE kept an eye on him, which happens a lot.
Siegel said that ICE knew where González was because he had to wear a GPS ankle monitor as part of his supervision order. ICE uses these orders to put foreigners in one of its supervision programs. This way, it can keep an eye on people who are not in the country legally. The programs are meant to be options to jail time. They help immigration officials keep track of people who don’t need to be deported right away or who need more time to look for legal ways to stay in the United States. ICE says that these kinds of tools are being used to keep an eye on about 179,000 people across the country.
Siegel said González has never been in trouble with the law and has been following the rules of his supervision order since he started the program when he came to the United States last year.
She said, “He was really here taking care of his brother and getting ready to give his brother his kidney.”
ICE and DHS did not answer when asked for a statement.
A letter from Pacheco’s doctors that NBC News got shows that he will probably have to wait years to get a transplant if González doesn’t donate a kidney.
For people with Mr. Pacheco’s blood type, the wait time on the list for a cadaver kidney donation is about 4 to 5 years. “Unfortunately, there is a very high death rate among people on dialysis while they wait for a kidney transplant,” the letter says. “Living donor kidney transplantation ensures the highest chance of survival.”
From what the letter says, González is the living kidney donor Pacheco needs so badly. Even if their blood groups aren’t compatible, González could still help Pacheco get a transplant by taking part in a paired kidney exchange, which pairs people who can receive kidneys with people who can donate them.
Siegel said that González could save two lives by taking part in a matched kidney exchange: his brother’s and the life of someone else who needs a kidney. “If José Gregorio is deported, many lives will be lost, families will be split up, and people will not be able to get the life-saving medical care they need.”
“I think it gives something away about José Gregorio,” Siegel said. “ICE has the power to decide whether to free him, even for a short time, so he can save Alfredo’s life.”
This past week, González spoke to Telemundo Chicago in Spanish from inside the holding centre. He said, “I hope I can go out and reach my goal of giving my brother my kidney.” I hope he has a lot of faith and holds out hope that we can do the transplant soon.
According to the same interview with Telemundo Chicago, Pacheco feels like “the world fell on me” since ICE arrested his brother. “Give me and my brother a chance to live.”
