Illegal immigrant arrested at follow-up hospital appointment

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - A woman has been arrested and charged with using a fake ID at Memorial Hermann Hospital.

Protestors gathered Thursday morning in her defense arguing her arrest was not justified.

"She had been going to this doctor for 18 months. There are laws protecting that doctor patient relationship," said Mary Moreno, the Communications Coordinator for the Texas Organizing Project (TOP). "She trusted him. And instead of treating her they called police."

Blanca Borrego was arrested for presenting a fake ID to her OB/GYN doctor that she had seen previously for a cyst that had been bothering her. Family members told TOP leaders that she was going for a follow-up appointment, when DPS arrived in the office.

Memorial Hermann released a statement that read, "Ms. Borrego arrived at our clinic for routine care where she presented potentially false identification. For quality and safety reasons, our staff requests and verifies proper identification to ensure appropriate treatment. The patient was unable to provide another valid form of identification and in an effort to verify the authenticity of the suspicious driver's license, the office then called the licensing bureau of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). DPS instructed our staff to contact local law enforcement to validate the driver's license number. This inquiry confirmed a false identification."

The statement went on to say they did not wish for Borrego to be arrested and that what happened to the patient was unfortunate.

"There are three places people should feel safe regardless of their immigration status: schools, places of worship ,and doctor's offices," said Moreno.

Organizers of TOP met with Dan Walterman, CEO of Memorial Hermann, to discuss how cases like this can be avoided in the future.

TOP released a statement shortly after the meeting that said, "We were encouraged by our meeting with Mr. Walterman that Memorial Hermann is committed to improving their protocols to make sure that what happened to Ms. Borrego and her family will never happen again."