A video went viral on social media where it can be seen an employee of Hertz denied renting a car to Puerto Rican man Humberto Marchand for which he had paid in advance because he denied to show his passport.

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Who is Humberto Marchand?

Humberto Marchand was a Puerto Rican man who booked a rental car from Hertz. He said he was allegedly troubled and denied a rental car, as the employee of Hertz kept on demanding his passport.

As reported by CNN, Marchand traveled to New Orleans on Wednesday and presented a Puerto Rican driver’s license at the Hertz counter at the Louie Armstrong Internation Airport. But the employee demanded his passport even though all Puerto Ricans come under US citizenship and do not need a passport to rent a car within the US.

Marchand accused the employee of treating him like a foreigner and denied his request of renting a car, which was prepaid. He said, “I was surprised and definitely frustrated because it was very late at night, so I decided to make a formal complaint”.
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The clip of the incident went viral on social media and gained a lot of users’ attention. After the incident, the employee and Hertz were heavily criticized, while many trolled them. One user wrote, “as a gold member why do they even need to stop at the checkout counter?    Imagine being racially profiled as a 10-year gold club member, then being denied.   Embarrassing for you. Imagine that you hired a person who does not know Puerto Rico is part of the U.S.”

However, in retort, a Hertz spokesperson said, “We sincerely regret that our policy was not followed and have apologized to Mr. Marchand and refunded his rental”, and are reinforcing their policies with employees.