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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Ramon Antonio Vargas

Chicago teen who pushed for parents’ release from ICE custody dies of cancer

a border wall between two countries
The border wall facing Mexico in Nogales, Arizona, on 22 February 2025. Photograph: Joel Angel Juarez/Reuters

A Chicago-born teen who advocated for his parents’ release from US immigration authorities’ custody while fighting terminal cancer has died shortly after reuniting with them in Mexico, his family has told media outlets.

The parents of 18-year-old Kevin González had been 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. González since then traveled to be with relatives in Mexico, and in recent days he had publicly pleaded for them to be released from ICE custody so they could be with him as he battled metastatic stage four colon cancer.

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