Just when you think you’ve heard it all, a story like this one comes along and completely rearranges what you thought was possible in the realm of the ludicrous and outrageous.
Blanca Borrego recently showed up for her annual gynecological exam at the Northeast Women’s Healthcare clinic in Atascocita, TX. Staffers at the clinic stalled her for several hours, then led her to an examination room where authorities entered a few minutes later and arrested her.
WTF?!
Borrego’s two daughters, who were also with their mother at the clinic, watched in horror as their mom was led away in handcuffs. Her eldest daughter recalled a deputy saying:
“’We’re going to take her downtown, she presented a form of false identification. She’s going to get deported.'”
Borrego’s attorney, Clarissa Guajardo, said Borrego was a first-time visitor to the clinic and had come to see her doctor with whom she had an established professional relationship. After giving clinic workers a fake drivers license, Borrego was told to wait. The authorities were then called. Guajardo said:
“They took her into that examination room solely for the purpose of being arrested. I just have a very hard time with that. I think it’s a violation of HIPAA laws.”
HIPPA laws protect the privacy of patients and their medical information.
Borrego is currently being held in the Harris County jail on a $35,000 bond. Her family is worried that she may be deported if she is convicted on felony charges of tampering with a government record because she also had a fake Social Security card in her purse.
When contacted by the media and asked if it is the clinic’s policy to contact authorities when staffers suspect patients of being undocumented immigrants, a spokesperson for Memorial Hermann–the parent company of Northwest Women’s Healthcare–responded:
“As you know, because of patient privacy, I am unable to provide comment.”
If only the workers at the clinic had felt that way when Ms. Borrego showed up for her appointment.
