"Kevin Gonzalez, an 18-year-old US citizen who was born in Chicago but raised in Mexico, received his terminal diagnosis in January. His parents, Isidro Gonzalez Aviles, 48, and Norma Anabel Ramirez Amaya, 43, were taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in Arizona in mid-April after they crossed the US border from Mexico without permission in an attempt to see him in Chicago as his health waned."
"A federal judge ordered the release of Isidro Gonzalez Aviles, 48, and Norma Anabel Ramirez Amaya, 43, on Thursday, as the Spanish-language US news network Telemundo reported. And, as Telemundo also noted, they had been able to be back with Kevin at his maternal grandmother's house in Durango, Mexico, on Saturday afternoon. Kevin's brother, Jovany Ramirez, and an aunt of his then reportedly told the network that he had died late Sunday afternoon."
"In an interview with the network at that house during Kevin's final hours, Gonzalez Aviles described kneeling at his son's feet, asking for forgiveness if he had ever let him down in anything and telling him he loved him very much. I don't think he deserved the suffering he had, a weeping Gonzalez Aviles said on video."
"Democratic US congressman Jesus Chuy Garcia of Chicago issued a statement Sunday saying the Gonzalezes should have had more time together. The statement from Garcia, who was born in Durango himself before his family immigrated to the US, added that he would honor Kevin and his family by vowing to continue fighting for a humane immigration system that treats everyone with dignity."
Kevin Gonzalez, an 18-year-old US citizen born in Chicago and raised in Mexico, had metastatic stage four colon cancer. His parents, Isidro Gonzalez Aviles and Norma Anabel Ramirez Amaya, were taken into ICE custody in Arizona after crossing the US border without permission to see him in Chicago as his health declined. Kevin traveled to be with relatives in Mexico and publicly pleaded for his parents’ release so they could be with him. A federal judge ordered their release, and they reunited with Kevin at his maternal grandmother’s house in Durango, Mexico. Kevin died late Sunday afternoon shortly after the reunion. His father described kneeling at his son’s feet, asking forgiveness, and saying he loved him. A Chicago congressman called for a more humane immigration system and said the family should have had more time together.
#immigration-and-customs-enforcement-ice #terminal-cancer #family-reunification #us-mexico-border #humanitarian-immigration-policy
Read at www.theguardian.com
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