Organ donor for ailing brother to be temporarily released from immigration detention

Being released on humanitarian parole means González will be granted a provisional reprieve from deportation, letting him stay temporarily in the United States to care for Pacheco and go through with the lifesaving organ donation.

The specific terms on which ICE agreed to temporarily release González have not been made public.

González is the living kidney donor Pacheco desperately needs, because, according to the letter, even in the case of blood group incompatibility between the brothers, González could secure a transplant for Pacheco by participating in a paired kidney exchange, which connects pairs of compatible recipients and donors.

Participating in a paired kidney exchange would mean González could save two lives, his brother’s and a second kidney recipient’s. “I think it speaks to José Gregorio’s character,” Siegel said.

Pacheco, 37, goes to a center three times a week at 4 a.m. for four-hour dialysis sessions. On March 3, he had just returned home from his dialysis session when several ICE agents approached González and took him into custody.

González sought asylum in the United States. But after he did not pass an initial credible fear interview, immigration authorities placed a deportation order on him. He was still allowed to remain in the United States under ICE supervision, which is not uncommon, according to Tovia Siegel, director of organizing and leadership at The Resurrection Project’s Immigrant Justice department.

Siegel said ICE was aware of González’s location at the time of his arrest because he had been wearing a GPS ankle monitor as part of his order of supervision.

ICE uses such orders to place immigrants in one of its supervision programs to monitor undocumented people and keep tabs on them. The programs, which are meant to serve as alternatives to detention, help immigration officials keep track of those who are not priorities for deportation or need more time to seek legal alternatives to remain in the U.S. According to ICE, nearly 179,000 people are being monitored through such programs nationwide.

González has no criminal record and had been complying with the requirements of his order of supervision since he was first placed in the program last year when he entered the U.S., according to Siegel.

Pacheco. who has a pending asylum case and qualifies for Medicaid under a state program, has been waitlisted for a kidney transplant at the University of Illinois Hospital.

Without González’s kidney donation, Pacheco would have had to wait about five years to receive a “cadaver kidney transplant,” according to a letter from Pacheco’s doctors obtained by NBC News.

“Unfortunately, the mortality on dialysis while waiting for kidney transplantation is extremely high,” the letter reads. “Living donor kidney transplantation ensures the highest chance of survival.”