CHICAGO () — A Venezuelan man who was granted humanitarian parole last year so he could donate a life-saving kidney to his brother in the Chicago area is back in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, his attorney said Wednesday.
José Gregorio González successfully gave one of his kidneys to his brother in August 2025, a procedure intended to help save his sibling’s life.
ICE had temporarily released González from a detention facility in Broadview in April 2025.
At the time, his attorney said González had been approved for one year of supervised release so he could care for his gravely ill brother and serve as his kidney donor.
González was first detained by ICE earlier in 2025 while he was accompanying his brother, José Alfredo Pacheco, to a dialysis appointment. Pacheco, a Cicero resident, was suffering from end-stage kidney failure and needed a transplant.
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The Resurrection Project, which represents González, said the kidney donation to Pacheco took place successfully on August 15, 2025, at a hospital in the Chicago area.
The organization has said González has no criminal background.
Now that González is once again in ICE custody, he faces the possibility of deportation.
His attorney, Peter Meinecke, is preparing a new request for humanitarian parole.
ICE said in a statement in April 2025, “Jose Gregorio Gonzalez, 43, is a citizen of Venezuela who has been ordered removed to his home country by an immigration judge… Gonzalez was arrested and placed in ICE custody March 3 without incident. After providing proper documentation ICE granted Gonzalez a temporary stay on humanitarian grounds.”
ABC News contributed to this report.
