Yes, Puerto Rican licenses are valid in the U.S., Hertz reminds its employees
Source: NPR
Hertz has clarified to its employees that Puerto Rican driver's licenses are valid forms of identification for customers, following an incident in which agents of the rental car company called the police on a Puerto Rican man after demanding he show his passport in order to pick up a car. Both Hertz and a local Louisiana police department apologized to the man, Puerto Rico resident Humberto Marchand.
The incident was previously reported on by CBS News. Afterward, Puerto Rico's representative in Congress, Jenniffer González-Colón, wrote a letter to the company's CEO urging Hertz to implement a companywide "educational campaign" for its employees. "It is unacceptable that, more than 100 years after having obtained US citizenship, Puerto Ricans are still being discriminated against and treated like second-class American citizens," González-Colón wrote.
In a response dated Tuesday, Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr wrote that he was "disappointed" to learn about the incident, which he called "unacceptable." The company's policy already allowed customers with Puerto Rican driver's licenses to rent cars without showing a passport, Scherr said, but it has since been rewritten to "be even more clear" about the status of Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories.
The company will emphasize the policy in communications with employees at its rental locations and call centers and add the topic to in-person training sessions, he added. "We will strive to make sure that Mr. Marchand's experience is not repeated," Scherr wrote.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/26/1178213881/hertz-puerto-rico-drivers-license
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... the UK and the islands of Jersey, Guernsey and Man (Crown Dependencies) then I could argue that PR citizens aren't second class. Crown Dependencies make their own laws and the UK only supplies defence and foreign representation for the islands. In practice they harmonize their laws somewhat with their neighbours.
However Federal law applies in Puerto Rico so yeah I agree with you that PR needs representation in US Congress. However unlike the District of Columbia, PR citizens don't pay US federal income tax on monies earned in PR. In that sense I suppose DC residents are 3rd class citizens as they have to pay US federal taxes and still have no formal representation in Congress.
But back to the main OP... While much rarer I'd like to be a fly on the wall of that Hertz office in Louisiana when a resident from the States of Jersey (i.e. "old" Jersey) turns up and presents their Jersey drivers licence... While the passport wouldn't be a problem they might look at the licence a bit funny... but if that Jersey tourist was more cautious they would have got themselves an International Driving Permit ahead of time to be extra sure.
the dumbing down of America has been. thank you so much ronald reagan etc.
