Cnn | A Venezuelan who wants to donate a kidney to his brother faces deportation: ICE temporarily released him

A Venezuelan who arrived in the United States to donate a kidney to his brother learned this week that he would be deported, which generated desperate supplications to free him from migratory custody for humanitarian reasons. Days later, José Gregorio González received a suspension of deportation, according to a defender.

Although temporary, relief means that González can continue to help his brother, José Alfredo Pacheco, leading him to dialysis and possibly becoming a kidney donor.

Pacheco emigrated to the United States from Venezuela in 2022 in search of asylum, according to Tovia Siegel, director of Organization and Leadership for Migration Justice of the Resurrection Project. His case, presented in 2023, is still pending.

That same year, after arriving at the Chicago area, he began experiencing abdominal pain. Pacheco, 37, sought treatment in a local hospital and diagnosed him terminal renal failure, according to Siegel.

González, 43, learned of his brother’s diagnosis and arrived in the United States at the end of 2023. He appeared on the border twice: in his first attempt, he did not pass the credible fear interview and denied the entrance. In his second attempt, he used an application created by the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that, during the Biden government, allowed asylum seekers to schedule interviews on the border.

«Because he had a previous deportation order, at that time he was arrested,» Siegel told CNN.

He was released several months later under a supervision order, since Venezuela did not accept deportation flights at that time, Siegel said. The order demanded to present regularly to the immigration authorities and use an electronic shackle, but allowed him to live with his brother and take care of him during the last year.

«During that time the necessary tests were being carried out to determine that Joseph could donate his kidney to Alfredo,» Siegel said.

They prepared for a possible operation when ICE agents appeared on March 3 at the house where the brothers lived in Cicero, Illinois, Siegel said. They arrested González.

A judge denied on Monday the suspension of González’s deportation, which made his brother and the defenders of the immigration of the Chicago resurrection project feared that his deportation was imminent.

But this Wednesday, his lawyer received the news that Ice would grant González humanitarian probation, which would allow him to remain temporarily in the United States to continue taking care of Pacheco and possibly carry out the donation of organs that would save his life.

It is likely that your release will happen this Friday, Siegel said. ICE has not yet specified the terms of his release, he added.

CNN communicated with ICE to request comments on González’s arrest and his planned release.

In a vigil on Monday night asking González’s release, before ICE granted him humanitarian probation, Pacheco told the crowd that he needs a four -hour dialysis three times a week to survive without a transplant.

«It’s extremely difficult; sometimes I can barely get out of bed,» he said in Spanish. «My brother is a good man … He came only with the hope of donating his kidney.»

Since the beginning of March, when González was arrested, Pacheco has had to load only with the weight of his diagnosis.

«He is tired, he has nausea and, since he has not had his brother here, he has had to drive himself to go and return from his appointments,» said Siegel. «So, in addition to the incredible emotional pain of family separation and detention, Alfredo has also faced very significant practical difficulties.»

On April 1, more than 90,000 people in the United States were on the waiting list for a kidney transplant, according to the organ acquisition and transplantation network. Until February of this year, according to the most recent data available, less than 4,500 people had received a transplant, according to the organization’s data. And only 1,000 of those donations came from living donors.

When González receives is released, the brothers plan to resume the process to determine if they are compatible for the transplant. If not, they will participate in a program called «Parade kidneys», which connects one or more pairs of compatible donors and receptors.

«The surprising thing is that, by donating his kidney, José Gregorio would save the lives of two people,» said Siegel, «because there would be two people in need of transplants that would receive them.»