Hertz tells brokers Puerto Rican licenses are legitimate in U.S. just after guy refused vehicle : NPR

Hertz has clarified to its staff that Puerto Rican driver’s licenses are legitimate kinds of identification for consumers, adhering to an incident in which agents of the rental car enterprise called the police on a Puerto Rican guy after demanding he exhibit his passport in buy to decide on up a car.

The two Hertz and a regional Louisiana police section apologized to the gentleman, Puerto Rico resident Humberto Marchand. The incident was earlier claimed on by CBS Information.

Afterward, Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress, Jenniffer González-Colón, wrote a letter to the firm’s CEO urging Hertz to carry out a companywide “academic marketing campaign” for its workforce.

“It is unacceptable that, extra than 100 years soon after obtaining obtained US citizenship, Puerto Ricans are nonetheless remaining discriminated versus and addressed like next-class American citizens,” González-Colón wrote.

In a reaction dated Tuesday, Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr wrote that he was “let down” to find out about the incident, which he known as “unacceptable.”

The firm’s plan currently allowed shoppers with Puerto Rican driver’s licenses to hire cars without having demonstrating a passport, Scherr said, but it has due to the fact been rewritten to “be even much more crystal clear” about the status of Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories.

The organization will emphasize the coverage in communications with staff members at its rental locations and contact centers and insert the subject to in-person teaching sessions, he extra. “We will strive to make guaranteed that Mr. Marchand’s knowledge is not recurring,” Scherr wrote.

On May perhaps 10, at the Hertz rental counter at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans Intercontinental Airport, Marchand introduced his valid Puerto Rican driver’s license to decide on up a pay as you go reservation. According to Marchand, Hertz staff did not accept his license as a valid variety of identification and asked to see a passport. He was not carrying his with him, he claimed, and agents ultimately denied him the car or truck.

Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, and Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.

In a video clip recorded by Marchand, he can be heard asking an employee “Did you know that my driver’s license in Puerto Rico is as valid as a Louisiana driver’s license?” The employee tells him he is behaving illegally and calls the police.

Hertz later on apologized for the incident. “We sincerely regret that our policy was not adopted and have apologized to Mr. Marchand and refunded his rental,” the enterprise claimed in a statement earlier this thirty day period. “We are reinforcing our insurance policies with staff members to ensure that they are comprehended and followed consistently throughout our areas.”

A police officer from Kenner, La., responded to the incident. In footage recorded by the officer’s overall body-worn digicam, the officer can be listened to asking Marchand to leave.

“Possibly you can recognize the words that are coming out of my mouth a minimal bit more distinct for the third time,” the officer states. “If they say you need a passport and you never have just one, and they say you require a passport to rent a vehicle, what is your challenge?”

The Kenner Police Office also later apologized. “I don’t think that’s the way we want to be portrayed, and he should not have been spoken to in that way,” Law enforcement Main Keith Conley reported to neighborhood Tv set station WVUE.