Chicago – In the past year, three days a week for four hours, Alfredo Pacheco, 37, has undergone dialysis. Most of the time, even if he feels sick, he pushes himself to work after the procedure, thinking of his three young children waiting to see him one day in Venezuela.
Over time, however, he feels weaker and a little more tired every day, he said.
Pacheco was diagnosed with a terminal kidney disease shortly after arriving in Chicago in search of asylum. It was then that the doctors told him that he needed a kidney transplant, “otherwise I would die,” he said. Medical files also show acute disease that has radically changed its life.
His older brother, José Gregorio González, 43, who was denied entry into the country on the southern border, tried to enter once again hoping to give a kidney to save his brother’s life. He managed to cross and stay in the United States under the supervision of immigration.
After a long and complicated process to be approved for the public insurance transplant, the brothers had an appointment in a Chicago hospital in April to do more tests for the exchange of organs. But on March 3, González was arrested by the American immigration and customs authorities and is now waiting for deportation to the County County Center in Indiana, leaving Pacheco, once again, desperate and fighting for his life.
The two plead with the immigration authorities to release González on the humanitarian parole to give the kidney. “After that, I will return to Venezuela,” said González during a call in the detention center.
“”Los back lloramos cuando ses llevaron, element that els mi vida,“Pacheco said, or in English:” We both cried when they took it because he knows that he is my lifeline. “”
The two Venezuelans brothers, affected both by immigration and health care policies at the federal and state level, highlight the disorders and families of immigrants are confronted in the country, defenders and lawyers said.
While the Trump administration continues to double efforts to expel unauthorized immigrants, it has now concluded an agreement with Venezuela to resume repatriation flights. This and the threat of the state of dismantling the coverage of Medicaid for non-citizens’ adults mean that “immigrants are attacked,” said Cook County Commissioner Alma Anaya, who is also vice-president of the health and hospitals.
“(Their history) highlights the complexities of some of the policies. Large decisions are taken on the level of the state and at the federal level which finally decide if a person lives or dies,” said Anaya.
In the case of Pacheco, the decision is in the hands of the immigration agent of González, said that their lawyer Peter Meinecke, who is also the lawyer director of the legal team of the Resurrection project. The request for humanitarian parole is directly made to the ice officer in charge of the detainee’s file, and the agent can authorize his release for a period fixed at his discretion.
“It is ultimately an opportunity to leave detention for the sole purpose of undergoing the donation of kidneys to save his brother’s life, then Ice will be able to hold him again and finally withdraw him from the country,” said Meinecke, who added that González has no criminal background.
In most cases, the maximum time of immigrants is released under humanitarian conditional release is one year. Most are released under surveillance or with ankle monitors, said Meinecke.
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Alfredo Pacheco left his dialysis clinic on March 26, 2025. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
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Alfredo Pacheco left his dialysis clinic on March 26, 2025. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
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From the detention center, by a telephone call, González said that his greatest concern was that he will be expelled before immigration agents can consider his case. For him, staying in the United States is no longer to find a better job or better stability, but rather to save his brother’s life.
When he made his way north at the end of 2023, González wanted to join Pacheco like thousands of other migrants from Chicago with work dreams and develop a better future for their children and families in their Natal Venezuela. He first tried to enter the country but failed the credible screening for fear, after learning that his brother was diagnosed with terminal renal failure, he tried again under the CBP One application, which allowed migrants to make appointments to enter the country.
It was then that González was put in the procedure of referral and detained for a few months, but as there were no flight flight to Venezuela, he was released to join Pacheco in Chicago under immigration surveillance in March 2024.
Due to the previous withdrawal order, unlike Pacheco, González cannot request asylum or any other type of immigration relief. ICE officials had no immediate comments, citing the confidentiality rules.
The oldest of six and having lost two younger brothers and sisters against accidents in recent years in Venezuela, González estimated that it was a blessing to be next to Pacheco even if it was only for a few months to give his kidney.
In the detention center, González said that he prays from time to time and wrote to his brother, always hoping that he will be released even for a few months to give his brother his kidney so that he can stay in the countryside and achieve the objectives he could not.
It is a promise that the two say they made themselves despite the uncertainty that the two are confronted. They are counting on each other and their family’s thinking in Venezuela for force.
The children of Pacheco, a girl, 17, and twin boys, 9, still do not know that their father has a terminal illness. He refuses to tell them because he hopes to obtain the transplant which could possibly put it back on the right track with his plans when he migrated for the first time in the United States.
He arrived in Chicago in July 2022 and asked for asylum shortly after. He said he had fled violence and political troubles because he was one of the Armed Forces in Venezuela. He wanted to find a job here and finally bring his wife and children.
But in January 2024, he found himself in the emergency room, feeling strong stomach pain and constant vomiting. Although he lost almost 15 pounds in less than a month, he was afraid to go to the doctor.
“My world has collapsed,” said Pacheco.
Since Pacheco has a case of pending asylum, it is covered by the Illinois medical services program for asylum candidates and torture victims (AATV), an extension of the Medicaid program. According to renal transplants, are generally more difficult to deal with for those who have an irregular immigration status, often taking a long process that could affect the patient’s life expectancy, according to health care experts. Most of the time, case managers help patients with an irregular immigration status or those in the country without permanent legal status to navigate the process.
In Illinois, immigrants who have no permanent legal status to reside in the country and receive a diagnosis of renal insufficiency can access kidney transplants, thanks to a law of 2014 and the Illinois Transplant Fund (ITF), which provides financial support for health insurance premiums, allowing them to qualify for transplants.
Pacheco managed to get on the waiting list for a kidney transplant at the University of Illinois hospital, confirmed a spokesperson for the institution. Even if González is not compatible with Pacheco, if he has a kidney, he could buy Pacheco time and a faster appointment for a transplant.
“Every day passing by without José Gregorio González released from detention to give his kidney putting his brother Alfredo to a greater risk of losing his life,” said the president of the Democratic Party Elizabeth “Lisa” Hernández, who supports the expansion of medical coverage for adults without Hbia without hango or without irregular immigration. “The situation in which we find ourselves is unfortunately unsurprising given the random repression of the current administration against workers and laws and their families. José deserves the opportunity to save his brother’s life. The Ministry of Internal Security and the Trump administration for humanitarian reasons should afford it and each immigrant this opportunity. ”
For the moment, Pacheco only works to deliver packages for Amazon from time to time, the days when dialysis does not draw the best of him, he said. Last month, he could not pay the rent of his basement in Cicero, but the girls of his owner helped him pay. They also help collect signatures to support his case and submit it to the ice agent, begging for mercy.
larodriguez@chicagogne.com
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
