The arrest of an undocumented immigrant who was taken into custody at a gynecologist's office in Texas is "troubling," her attorney said, because authorities asked medical personnel to delay treatment in order to make the arrest.
Blanca Borrego, 44, was arrested Sept. 3 and released this week after posting $35,000 bail. Borrego was charged with tampering with a government record after administrators at the Northeast Women's Healthcare clinic in Atascocita, Texas, called sheriff's deputies because they believed she was using someone else's identification card.
She had gone in for a pain caused by a cyst and to get a regular check up.
After prosecutors accepted charges for the forged identification card, a Harris County Sheriff's deputy asked the clinic to "delay treatment so she would still be in the waiting room when deputies arrived," said department spokesman Ryan Sullivan.
Deputies ended up arresting her inside the examination room.
Borrego was trying to use medical coverage through her husband's private health insurance when she presented the fake ID, her 22-year-old daughter, America Ruiz, told BuzzFeed News.
"Once they called her in, they arrested her in the back," Ruiz said. "I was in shock, the deputy said they were going to take her downtown and that she was going to be deported."
Her attorney, Clarissa Guajardo, said Borrego was kept in the clinic under false pretenses and was concerned that staff violated her client's medical privacy.
It's "a troubling set of facts," Guajardo told BuzzFeed News. "The staff kept her there for two hours under the false pretense that she was going to see a doctor and was instead greeted by deputies in the examination room."
When asked if delaying a patient's care violated policy, Alex Loessin, spokeswoman for Memorial Hermann, which manages the doctor's office, said staff did not actually delay care, noting that it was not uncommon to wait up to two hours for an appointment.
The group, Loessin said, was committed to caring for all patients, regardless of race, religion, or immigration status. Staffers at the clinic called police after being presented with fake identification, which led to the "unfortunate situation," Loessin added.
"We do not ask patients about residency or immigration status, nor do we report an undocumented patient to law enforcement," Loessin said in a statement. "To be clear, this incident has nothing to do with immigration."
However, Ranjana Natarajan, a board member for the ACLU of Texas, said it was worrisome to hear that law enforcement was involved in delaying medical treatment.
"That could undermine public health and public safety — we don't know what kind of serious health conditions someone might have," Natarajan told BuzzFeed News. "It also creates an unnecessary distrust between the [immigrant] community and law enforcement when things like this happen."
Some advocacy groups have decried Borrego's arrest, concerned that since she was arrested at a doctor's office, other undocumented immigrants may be deterred from seeking medical care.
The Texas Latina Advocacy Network, a team under the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, plans to protest outside Memorial Hermann's headquarters in Houston, Texas, to demand a change to their policies.
But authorities insist the arrest had nothing to do with immigration.
"It was a really basic and simple crime that was...reported by the doctors's office," said Sullivan of the Harris County Sheriff's Department.
Deputies also found she was in possession of a fake social security card, prompting a more serious charge, Sullivan added.
Sullivan said there was no immigration hold placed on her by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and that if she is put in deportation proceedings, it would not occur until after she is convicted and serves time.
Mary Moreno, communications director at the Texas Organizing Project, which helped organize support for Borrego, said the reason people are upset is because she was arrested inside the doctor’s offices.
“It violates the understanding that these are safe places,” Moreno told BuzzFeed News.