CVS Pharmacy apologized Sunday after one of its Indiana stores rejected a student’s Puerto Rican ID as a valid form of identification and prevented him from buying cold medicine.
In a Facebook post, Arlene Payano Burgos wrote that her son, José A. Guzmán-Payano, currently a junior at Purdue University, was prevented from buying Mucinex last month after the employees saw his ID, asked for a visa and “started confronting him about his immigration status.”
Mr. Guzmán-Payano allegedly attempted to explain to the employees and a manager that Puerto Ricans were U.S. citizens, but was denied.
Mrs. Payano later was told store policy prevented them from accepting a Puerto Rican identification.
“What caused this employee to ask him for his visa?” she wrote. “Was it his accent? Was it his skin color? Was it the Puerto Rican flag on the license? Whatever triggered her to discriminate against my son embodies exactly what is wrong in the United States of America today.”
The family filed a complaint with CVS on Oct. 25 but the matter wasn’t addressed by the pharmacy until Sunday when news outlets began reporting on the encounter.
The New York Times reported that a representative apologized and admitted the company had erred.
In a statement to The Times, CVS said they would retrain the employees but called it “an isolated incident.”
“We absolutely recognize Puerto Rican driver’s licenses to be a valid form of U.S. identification,” the statement said.
Additionally, a shift supervisor for the CVS apologized and said the employees have since been retrained.
While Puerto Rico is not a U.S. state, all Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, a fact that only 54% of Americans know, according to a 2017 poll.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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