Growing up, Kevin Gonzalez, 18, dreamed of going to college and becoming a lawyer. But as he lay in a hospital bed in Chicago this winter, his gaunt frame ravaged by colon cancer, those aspirations narrowed to one final wish: seeing his parents before he died.<\/p>\n
Fulfilling that dream meant a desperate fight against time in his final weeks of life as his father, Isidoro Gonzales Avil\u00e9s, and his mother, Norma Anabel Ramirez Amaya, sat in President Trump\u2019s immigration-detention system.<\/p>\n
Kevin Gonzalez, an American citizen, was being treated at the University of Chicago Medical Center, but his parents, Mexican citizens on the other side of the southwestern border, had already been deported multiple times after illegal crossings. That made it nearly impossible for them to get legal permission to return to the United States.<\/p>\n
So last month, relatives said, the parents decided to cross once again illegally, this time to see their dying son, only to be apprehended on April 14 near the Arizona border. As they sat in a detention center and Mr. Gonzalez\u2019s health faded, his family grew desperate. They pleaded his case to the Mexican consulate, to elected officials, to the news media, to anyone who would listen.<\/p>\n
The cancer had spread to his stomach and lungs, they said. He could not eat solid foods. They just wanted to reunite him with his parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the most important thing,\u201d his older brother, Jovany Ramirez, 23, said in a telephone interview from Chicago, where he spent the past few months helping care for Mr. Gonzalez.<\/p>\n
Department of Homeland Security officials asserted that Mr. Gonzalez\u2019s father had a criminal history beyond immigration violations. According to the agency, Mr. Gonzalez\u2019s father first entered the United States in 2000 and was charged with crimes that included sexual abuse, battery and theft. He was deported in 2011.<\/p>\n
The agency did not respond to a request for additional details about those charges, including whether any had resulted in convictions, and The New York Times was unable to independently find records of those charges.<\/p>\n
One of Kevin\u2019s aunts, Nancy Ramirez, did respond: \u201cHe has a past, from before he was with my sister, and we don\u2019t know anything about it,\u201d she said about Isidoro Gonzales Avil\u00e9s. \u201cThe important thing here is Kevin. He\u2019s not here anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Department of Homeland Security also said the parents had not requested humanitarian parole into the United States as they sought to get to their son in Chicago. They had applied for visitor visas, which were denied because of their earlier illegal entries.<\/p>\n
Kevin Gonzalez was born in Chicago but moved to Mexico when he was young and grew up there, his family said. He sometimes flew back to Chicago to visit relatives, go to doctor\u2019s appointments and get new lenses for his thick, black-rimmed glasses.<\/p>\n
Kevin Gonzalez and his mother, Norma Anabel Ramirez Amaya.Credit…via Nancy Ramirez<\/p>\n
The teen had recently been having stomach troubles and losing weight, no matter how much he ate, his family said. So when he returned to Chicago this winter, he underwent a series of tests and learned he had Stage 4 colon cancer, Nancy Ramirez said.<\/p>\n
As he grew frailer, Mr. Gonzalez, a dedicated student, insisted on keeping up with his homework from his Mexican high school, relatives said. His family bought him a maroon cap and gown and held a graduation ceremony in his hospital room.<\/p>\n
His family posted videos of a visitor giving Mr. Gonzalez a Mexican soccer jersey, and him sleeping to the strains of a guitar ballad being strummed at his bedside.<\/p>\n