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Kevin Rager of Orange County told KABC that his children's babysitter, an undocumented immigrant, was reduced to tears when she was rejected at a Rite Aid store twice on the same day.

Rager said his employee even provided Rite Aid with an out-of-state identification and a letter he wrote verifying she watches his children. But the pharmacist at a Rite Aid in Laguna Niguel, according to Rager, insisted on seeing the woman's Social Security card and inaccurately told her that vaccine priority goes to U.S. citizens.

\"These questions shouldn't be asked of any individual, and our entire country needs to get vaccinated. So, I don't see why somebody should be denied when they actually want to get a vaccine,\" Rager said.

Rep. Tony Cárdenas, who represents Los Angeles, said the legal immigration status of a person is not supposed to interfere with them getting vaccinated.

\"That is not a requirement whatsoever at the federal, state or local level, and that organization (Rite Aid) has been told very clearly that that was wrong, and they immediately apologized for doing so, but it left the woman very distraught,\" Cárdenas told KABC of Rager's employee.

On Feb. 1, the federal Department of Homeland Security issued a statement that the agency and its \"federal government partners fully support equal access to the COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine distribution sites for undocumented immigrants.\"

\"It is a moral and public health imperative to ensure that all individuals residing in the United States have access to the vaccine. DHS encourages all individuals, regardless of immigration status, to receive the COVID-19 vaccine once eligible under local distribution guidelines,\" the DHS statement reads.

A message to our campus and RGV community: pic.twitter.com/QaebNMFAzL

— UTRGV (@utrgv) February 21, 2021

However, the confusion over whether undocumented immigrants qualify to receive vaccine has continued to occur not only in Southern California, but elsewhere in the country. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley issued an apology to at least 14 people who were rejected Feb. 20 at its vaccination site because they could not provide proof of U.S. residency.

What to know about the coronavirus:

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