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 Friday around noon from the Broadview ICE office, according to members of the Resurrection Project, a local immigration advocacy group, who said ICE officials had confirmed his likely release Friday. He was granted a stay of removal for a year, meaning he will have to check in on supervision to a local ICE office, though the terms of that aren’t yet known.
Peter Meinecke, an attorney with the Resurrection Project who is representing Jose Gregorio Gonzalez, said they were informed of his pending release Wednesday night and were given official confirmation early Thursday morning. 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.
Under prior administrations, the case would have been much easier, according to Meineke. He expects this to be an “isolated incident” given that cases are individually decided by immigration officials and don’t carry much precedent elsewhere.
“People were detained under previous administrations, but you’d have a much higher likelihood of having them released on something like a humanitarian parole or a stay of removal given different administrations had different enforcement priorities for deportation,” Meineke said. “Under this administration, it’s increasingly unlikely [immigration advocates and lawyers] will win, so this is a massive victory for us.”
The biggest difference in Meineke’s opinion is the publicity surrounding the case, as well as the backing of advocacy organizations. Without those, he said other cases slip through the cracks.
“He had the full backing of the Resurrection Project that has decades of political capital,” Meineke said. “Unfortunately individuals without representation don’t always have positive outcomes like this. If a non-criminal like Jose can be picked up while just helping his brother, I think everyone feels a level of fear that this could happen to them as well.”
The two still have yet to be confirmed as a match, but it was all but “confirmed” Jose Gregorio Gonzalez could still donate his kidney and find one for his brother through a kidney exchange, which connects donors with compatible recipients.
But there’s still another problem: finding Jose Alfredo Pacheco Gonzalez a caretaker once his brother is again facing deportation. Neighbors have stepped up to fill in while Jose Gregario Gonzalez has been in custody, but there’s now a one year timer on both getting Jose Alfredo Pacheco Gonzalez a kidney and a new full-time caretaker.
“His brother has been the primary caretaker for him,” Meineke said. “He doesn’t have anyone else.”
Contributing: Emmanuel Camarillo