Berwyn, sick. ((Wgn) – Activists, members of the Community and elected officials call on the American immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) to release a prisoner who prepared to make an organ donation to save his brother’s lives.
On Monday evening a Wake was held for José Gregorio, a 43-year-old from Venezuela, who is held in an immigration detention center for almost a month.
Gregorio prepared to donate a kidney to his brother, José Alfredo Pacheco, 37, who has a final stage kidney disease. Pacheco said his brother is his lifeline to survive and the only family member he has here to help him.
“This is literally a matter of life and death,” lawyer Peter Meinecke told Nexstar’s WGN with the resurrection project.
According to Meinecke, Pacheco came to the United States in 2022 and applied for asylum, an application that is still being processed.
In 2023 he received the news that his kidney had stopped functioning. He currently receives dialysis treatment three days a week, four hours at a time to stay alive.
If he left the country, the Pacheco application for asylum would be void, his lawyer said.
Gregorio came to the country in 2023, not long after his brother heard his diagnosis, lawyers said. He came with the aim of helping his brother and was initially denied access to the southern border, reportedly failing to prove the immigration authorities that he had a reasonable fear of returning to Venezuela.
He tried again and was eventually released because there were no deportation flights at that time. He was allowed to come to the Chicago area under immigration supervision, said his lawyer. He has no criminal record and Ice has been aware of his movements since then.
Earlier this month, ICE agents reportedly held Gregorio in the house in Cicero, Illinois, where he had lived at Pacheco.
“On March 3, I witnessed six ice officers who lured two brothers in an ambush, because they just tried to get their dialysis appointment,” said a source at the Berwyn-Cicero Rapid Response team. “This is not about immigration policy or legal status; this is about family.”
Proponents of the resurrection project said that Gregorio’s most important care stays in the country long enough for immigration agents to consider his case. They submitted a stay of removal to postpone or prevent his deportation, which was refused on Monday.
While Gregorio’s lawyers are planning to ask for an assessment of the decision, they also ask immigration officers to consider free him to release humanitarian conditional release, so that he could stay in the United States for a year to complete the kidney transplant.
“In this case lighting is not necessary that Jose Gregorio stays, it can still mean that he is going back,” Meinecke said.
“[Gregorio] I actually said that he is willing to return to his home country after he could have made the donation, “said Tovia Siegel, director of organizing and leadership for the resurrection project.” He was almost the full -time caregiver of his brother. He wants to do the ultimate act of love and generosity to literally give part of his body. “
Pacheco and Gregorio were established to continue medical agreements in this coming month with regard to the transplantation process in the UIC Medical Center.
According to lawyers with the resurrection project, even if Gregorio was not an exact match for his brother, he could still donate his kidney to save someone else. As part of the Nier SWAP program, the family member of another or a good friend can donate a kidney in return and save two lives.
Lawyers said Gregorio has no criminal history and is currently being held in a detention facility in Indiana. They started one Online petition Hoping to address the public for more help.
WGN contacted ICE for a commentary on the case and was told that, due to the 1974 privacy act, federal agencies are generally prohibited to share private information about individuals without their written permission, unless in accordance with a legal exception.
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