Hertz issued an apology for turning away a US citizen at one of their car rental locations, arguing that customers were required to present a US passport. ONE Hertz The worker refused Humberto Marchand’s reservation at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans, Louisiana, after asking Marchand to show his passport, even though his Puerto Rican driver’s license was optional. eligible body according to Hertz policy.
Marchand is an American citizen from Puerto Rico, once a territory of the United States since 1917 (although those born after 1898 at that time grant US citizenship) and proud to have representation in Congress. He was traveling to New Orleans – officially considered domestic travel – and paid for a Herz car rental at Armstrong Airport first.
Marchand gave the clerk at the rental desk his driver’s license, which had Spanish and English written on it, as both are official languages in Puerto Rico. This is followed by a tense exchange of visitors, Hertz staff and a Kenner police officer, who allegedly threatened to call border patrol…into a U.S. citizen.
CBS reporter David Begnaud break down the encounter, partially captured on camera by the denied visitor, Humberto Marchand:
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In the footage, we see the Hertz the employee asked Marchand to show his US passport. The requirement assumes that Marchand is a foreign citizen and not a citizen of the United States, and not only Hertz the employee operated under an incorrect assumption, but she also violated Hertz’s own terms, which state that a Puerto Rican driver’s license is a valid form of ID.
Marchand told the officer this several times, but employee Hertz asked if he wanted her to call the police. Marchand said yes, please, and Officer Kenner arrived at the scene; The officer who spoke to Marchand turned off his body-worn camera at some point during or after the exchange, but Marchand asserts that the officer threatened to call the Border Patrol world and asked him to leave.
Kenner Police stated the department’s review of the footage did not confirm the officer’s comment. The department asked Marchand to file a complaint and they will investigate further.
Hertz made the following statement:
Hertz accepts Puerto Rican driver’s licenses from our customers renting in the United States without requiring a valid passport. We sincerely regret that our policy was not followed and have apologized to Mr. Marchand and refunded his rent. We are strengthening our policies with employees to ensure that they are consistently understood and followed across our locations.
Hertz has already refunded Marchand’s reservation, but it’s unclear if tourists will be able to rent a car from Hertz. Looks like the competitor Enterprise or Budget, etc., just acquired a long-term customer. According to Hertz, employees who turned down Marchand were “reminded about [the] permanent policy regarding Puerto Rican driver’s licenses,” and the company will remind its workers that people from Puerto Rico are actually U.S. citizens.
I guess the only difference is that their driver’s license is bilingual — that’s right. The guardian note that the United States is home to the world’s second largest number of Hispanic speakers at 53 million, second only to Mexico, which has 127 million Spanish speakers.
