ICE releases Venezuelan to donate kidney to dying brother in Chicago

USA Today

04-04-2025

ICE releases Venezuelan to donate kidney to dying brother in Chicago Brothers José Alfredo Pacheco and José Gregorio González grew up close in Venezuela. When González heard Pacheco needed a kidney, he came to the US but ICE detained him before the procedure.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, released recent migrant arrest numbers of those illegally in the U.S.
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CHICAGO – A Venezuelan man who traveled to the U.S. to donate a kidney to his dying brother but was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents was released on Friday to eventually undergo the procedure.
The pair of brothers grew up close together in Venezuela but like many in the country became separated by distance as each pursued a stable life amid the South American country's cratering economy and society. That led José Alfredo Pacheco to the United States but renal disease threatened to cut short his life.
His brother, José Gregorio González, hoped to give him a chance by donating his kidney; only immigration agents arrested him before completing the procedure.
ICE's detainment of González, 43, last month sparked protest in Chicago and amid pressure from activists and lawmakers, including Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, federal authorities released González from a a nearby detention center.
'I'm extremely happy for the liberation of my brother . . . We fought for one month and one day to reach this goal,' Pacheco, 37, told reporters in Chicago on Friday. He had to stop speaking at points as he welled up with emotion over his reunion with his brother. 'They separated us for a month where I didn't know what was happening with him, imagine that.'
The two brothers spoke at a news conference at a legal center on the city's South Side alongside Congressman Jesús Chuy García and representatives from The Resurrection Project, a local immigrant justice group that provides legal support for the brothers.
'This case reminds us of the urgency for immigrant justice,' said García, who is from Mexico. 'It is troubling that this arrest, detention and incarceration occurred because, like this instance, there have been other instances where people are being arrested without a warrant, where we can only assume profiling is taking place based on people's appearance, where they work, where they walk, where they go to church and that's reprehensible.'
ICE's release of the brother comes amid a fraught few months for immigrants across the country. Federal agents nationwide have detained immigrants who have permission to work in the country and sent them not just out of the country but to foreign jails, including a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Among those swept up was a Texas family seeking medical care for a daughter recovering from brain surgery. The family is currently appealing their deportation to Mexico.
President Donald Trump's publicly stated goals of significantly higher detentions and deportations across the country reflect his campaign promises to toughen border controls and kick out people he deems unwanted.
ICE spokesperson David L. Yost said González was out "on humanitarian grounds."
Peter Meinecke, an attorney for the brothers, explained the conditions of González's release. The older brother is being let out for one year in order to finish determining the compatibility of the organ donation. He is allowed to work during that year and is expected to check in with immigration agents. At the end of that year he may be detained and deported, Meinecke said.
González, who was detained for just over a month at ICE centers in Indiana and Illinois, appeared shocked but briefly addressed reporters.
'I'm very happy and I thank everyone,' he said. 'This is unbelievable, I never imagined this was possible.'
The brothers said that the first thing that they planned to do together was call their mother back home in Venezuela
Journey to Chicago
The two brothers come from the Venezuelan city of Guanare, the capital of the state of Portuguesa, according to their attorney.
Like millions in the country, Pacheco left for the United States amid rising violence that their attorney said directly impacted the family.
Pacheco arrived in the U.S. in 2022 and eventually settled in Cicero, an immigrant community outside Chicago. He delivers packages for Amazon under a permit that allows him to work while his asylum case is pending, Meinecke said.
He was diagnosed with renal disease at the end of 2023, prompting his older brother to also head north to donate his kidney. Pacheco's organ has nearly completely failed and he has to go for dialysis three times a week in four-hour stints, Meinecke said.
González arrived in early 2024 and after being detained for a few months was let out in March of that year. He joined his brother in Illinois and became the ailing man's primary caretaker, according to Meinecke.
The brothers were leaving the house in the early morning for Pacheco's dialysis appointment when plainclothes immigration agents arrived and detained González last month. They asked González to identify himself and after confirming his identity detained him without a warrant, according to their attorney.
Meinecke, who also represents other immigrants in Chicago, told USA TODAY that González's release reflected a rare glimmer of hope amid what have been a desperate few months.
'Even though the odds are against you in many cases, it's worth standing up to this administration because with collective action you can still accomplish things,' he said. 'We're committed to continuing the fight for the next four years.'
More: Judge orders US to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador prison
More: Boston judge orders contempt charge against ICE agent after defendant vanishes mid-trial
Pressure campaign to release brother
The arrest sparked protest in Chicago after the Chicago Tribune first reported the story and nearly 2,000 people have signed a petition supporting the release that they shared.
Top lawmakers in Illinois also pressured ICE to release González.
'Today is a day for family, this is a happy reunion, and we hope to have many of these in the future,' Congressman García, who is from Mexico, told reporters on Friday. 'But we hope we don't need them because that'll mean we have returned to normalcy and constitutional rule.'
García lamented the fear Trump's immigration enforcement policies have had on the heavily Hispanic part of Illinois he represents where people have reported being afraid to be seen on the street since Trump came into office.
'We're troubled by the enforcement operations, by the false rhetoric that has produced these types of attention and fear in our community,' García said. 'Children are being affected, families are afraid, small businesses are hurting as well, and for the most part all immigrants want to do is work, help, be a part of the community and yes, be a part of our country.'
ICE actions nationwide
Trump campaigned on promises of strict immigration enforcement and since coming into office, federal agents nationwide have enforced a forceful crackdown.
Many immigrants who are allowed in the country have been rounded up in the mix, despite scant evidence of any wrongdoing.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant from El Salvador living in Maryland, was sent to a notorious prison in his native country after being swept up among hundreds of alleged members of crime gangs MS-13 and Venezuela's Tren de Aragua to El Salvador last month.
A court order barred Garcia's removal from the country but he was deported anyway, which the Trump administration called an 'administrative error.' A federal judge ordered on Friday that he be returned to the United States.
In suburban Denver, a mother has been left distraught after her husband, Venezuelan immigrant Jefferson Jose Laya Freites, was sent to the same prison in El Salvador.
Laya Freites, 33, has no criminal record in the United States, and his wife says he's never been part of the Tren de Aragua gang, as Trump claimed.
Now, without Laya Freites' salary from the stone countertop company where he worked, his wife is struggling to pay their mounting bills, including the rent for their one-bedroom apartment.
'I have to keep going for my kids,' she said, tears rolling down her face.
Contributing: Eduardo Cuevas, Trevor Hughes.
Michael Loria is a national reporter on the USA TODAY breaking news desk. Contact him at [e-mail], @mchael_mchael or on Signal at [phone].