Gonzalez knew it: If he was deported, his brother would die.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the brothers were admitted to the University of Illinois Hospital, where the transplant surgery was successfully performed. Hospital officials confirmed that both Pacheco and Gonzalez were recovering well.<\/p>\n
After mounting pressure from advocates and elected officials, ICE granted Gonzalez a temporary humanitarian parole<\/a> so that they could proceed with the transplant, an unexpected move at a time when the agency is ramping up enforcement. Unlike in past administrations, immigration experts say agents today have less discretion over individual cases and are under pressure to meet deportation quotas, leaving little room for compassion.<\/p>\n Though Gonzalez must return to Venezuela by March \u2014 after he\u2019s recovered from surgery \u2014 he says he\u2019s deeply grateful to the agent who, as he put it, \u201ctouched his heart\u201d and gave him the chance to save his brother\u2019s life.<\/p>\n \u201cCon fe, todo se puede,\u201d Gonzalez said, smiling, his voice quiet and weak. \u201cEverything is possible if you have faith.\u201d<\/p>\n Even through the surgery, Gonzalez wore the ankle monitor that ICE activated when he was released from the Clay County Jail in southwest Indiana.<\/p>\n The brothers now face a long and perhaps complicated road to recovery. The two have limited funds from the few hours of work that Pacheco was able to put in after dialysis over the last few months. Gonzalez was still waiting for the work permit that ICE officials promised.<\/p>\n They were able to pay for rent and Pacheco\u2019s health insurance for a few months thanks to a fundraiser organized by his neighbors in the town of Cicero and a page on a GoFundMe page still open<\/a>. But the money is running out quickly.<\/p>\n Pacheco said he is worried the two won\u2019t be able to rest or take care of themselves properly after the surgery, potentially offsetting the success of the organ transplant and putting their lives on line once again.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to be honest, we were so focused on making sure that I could get the transplant that we didn\u2019t consider much of the rest,\u201d Pacheco said. \u201cWe only have each other and cousins here. The rest of our family is in Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n Their cousin Cristalyn Gonzalez, 38, said her husband took some days off work to take care of their two kids so that she can help the brothers while they\u2019re at the hospital.<\/p>\n \u201cI want them to feel supported somehow,\u201d she said. \u201cWe never thought that we would go through something like in the country we thought was going to provide us with opportunities to make a better life for us and our children.\u201d<\/p>\n Journey north<\/p>\n Pacheco was the first one of the brothers to make his way in 2022. Like many other Venezuelan migrants, he made the trek to the United States hoping to get asylum from political and socioeconomic turmoil in Venezuela, where he served as part of the military during his youth.<\/p>\n By January 2024, Pacheco was suddenly diagnosed with end-stage renal disease not long after arriving in the Chicago area from the southern border.<\/p>\n \u201cMy world completely fell apart,\u201d Pacheco said, who at first refused to tell his family back in Venezuela. \u201cThey were counting on me to help out over there.\u201d<\/p>\n Gonzalez was already at the southern border when he learned of his younger brother\u2019s brother\u2019s prognosis.<\/p>\n Though agents had denied him entry the first time, he tried to enter again a second time, knowing that he would be his brother\u2019s lifeline.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when Gonzalez was detained for the first time at a Texas facility awaiting deportation, but since there were no deportation flights to Venezuela, he was released to join Pacheco in Chicago under immigration supervision in March 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was the first miracle,\u201d Pacheco said. \u201cI know God was on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n Due to the previous order of removal, unlike Pacheco, Gonzalez cannot apply for asylum or any other kind of immigration relief. ICE officials had no comment, citing confidentiality rules.<\/p>\n The oldest of six and having lost two younger siblings to accidents over the last few years in Venezuela, Gonzalez felt it was a blessing to be by Pacheco\u2019s side even if it was only for a few months to donate his kidney.<\/p>\n Until ICE took him once again in March of 2025, just shy of a month of starting the process to donate the kidney \u2014 as confirmed by UIC hospital officials \u2014 and days before his parole ended.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has been a difficult, painful and frustrating experience,\u201d Pacheco said. \u201cThe American Dream doesn\u2019t exist. It\u2019s a lie. But at least there are good people in Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite his illness and uncertainty, getting dialysis every other day for four hours in the early morning, Pacheco worked delivering packages for Amazon. He used most of the money to pay for rent and food, and the rest, he said, he would send to his wife and children in Venezuela.<\/p>\n \u201cThey think everything is going OK here in Chicago, and that one day I will be back healthy and with enough money to start anew,\u201d Pacheco said.<\/p>\n Pacheco\u2019s children, a girl, 17, and twin boys, 9, still don\u2019t know that their father has a terminal illness. They also didn\u2019t know that we underwent lifesaving surgery on Thursday morning. They do know however, that their father and their uncle are hoping to return to Venezuela sometime soon, when \u201cthings are much better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI now pray that my body responds well and that I have the strength to undergo the recovery,\u201d Pacheco said.<\/p>\n The recovery process is not an easy one, said Hilda Burgos, a longtime community activist who was key to the movement that helped to establish and pass legislation in Illinois in 2014 that expanded access to organ transplants<\/a>, specifically kidney transplants, and the drugs needed to maintain the transplants, for immigrants with an irregular status in the country.<\/p>\n Long fight for transplants<\/p>\n \u201cUndocumented people, \u2018illegal people,\u2019 as many like to call us, were allowed to donate our organs to save people\u2019s lives including us citizen, but if we needed one, we couldn\u2019t get one. We couldn\u2019t even get in line to get one,\u201d Burgos said. \u201cThese two brothers are a testament to great work that the community has done to advocate for each other. We are not talking about policies here, it is people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Burgos\u2019 passion to advocate for those undocumented people in need of transplants began after her son was initially denied a kidney transplant he needed to continue living when he was 18-year-old in 2009. After mourning pressure, he got the surgery, but it was also then when she became aware of the \u201cunfair system.\u201d<\/p>\n Shortly after, she joined a delegation of faith leaders and medical leaders representing a group of ailing people in need of lifesaving transplants in Chicago. The group, led by the late Rev. Jose Landaverde performed hunger strikes outside the city\u2019s major hospitals<\/a>, marched from Little Village to UIC and then to Northwestern. And they even conducted a funeral march for one woman who had died after not receiving a liver transplant.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fight for transplants was not an easy one,\u201d Landaverde told the Tribune in 2014.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Brothers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/CTC-L-kidney-brothers_232593200.jpg\")
Brothers Alfredo Pacheco, left, and Jose Gregorio Gonzalez prepare for a living kidney transplant on Aug. 14, 2025, at University of Illinois Hospital. (Hoss Fatemi\/UI Health Marketing)<\/p>\n![\"Venezuelan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/CTC-L-venezulean-brothers-kidney12_232582798.jpg\")
Venezuelan migrant brothers Jose Gregorio Gonzalez, left, and Alfredo Pacheco talk as they wait at their basement apartment in Cicero before heading to University of Illinois Hospital for a kidney transplant on Aug. 14, 2025. (Antonio Perez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"Days](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/CTC-L-venezulean-brothers-kidney42_232585870.jpg\")
Days before Pacheco\u2019s transplant surgery, Jose Gregorio Gonzalez shows his ankle monitor outside their apartment in Cicero on Aug. 10, 2025. (Antonio Perez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"Brothers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/CTC-L-venezulean-brothers-kidney08_232582898.jpg\")
Brothers Jose Gregorio Gonzalez, left, and Alfredo Pacheco, wait in their basement apartment in Cicero before heading to the hospital for their kidney transplant surgery on Aug. 14, 2025. (Antonio Perez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
![\"Alfredo](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/CTC-L-venezulean-brothers-kidney19_232582842-e1755298663800.jpg\")
Alfredo Pacheco, left, takes a selfie with his brother, Jose Gregorio Gonzalez, in Cicero before heading to University of Illinois Hospital for their kidney transplant surgery on Aug. 14, 2025. (Antonio Perez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n