Why Puerto Rico is adding 'USA' to its driver's licenses

Humberto Marchand turned on his phone camera and began recording inside the airport in May because he could not believe what he was hearing.

The subsequent video was posted on social media and showed an employee of Hertz, the rental car chain, refusing to give Marchand his prepaid reserved car because he had presented a driver’s license issued from Puerto Rico, where he is from. The employee did not realize that this meant he was American and ignored Marchand’s pleas as he repeated, “It is a valid ID.”

Eileen Vélez Vega, Puerto Rico’s secretary of transportation and public works, felt increasingly frustrated as she watched that video in the spring, which reignited concerns over how Puerto Ricans are treated in the United States and the way their colonial past still vexes the island.

“I was shocked about how much lack of education, lack of knowledge was out there,” Vélez Vega said in an interview, noting that people born in Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the United States, have the same birthright American citizenship as people born in the 50 states. “I couldn’t believe what was happening.”

Vélez Vega and her department made calls to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security over the summer to discuss a possible solution.

On Tuesday, Puerto Rico’s government revealed its plan: Driver’s licenses will now read “Puerto Rico USA” on the top, an addition that officials hope will minimize issues when Puerto Ricans are traveling in the mainland United States.

There have been several high-profile cases this year of Puerto Ricans being wrongly told that their licenses are not really proof of American citizenship, with many of those instances gaining attention because of reporting from CBS: A Puerto Rican family flying home from Los Angeles was asked for passports because the airline employee appeared to be unaware that the island was U.S. territory.

Andrew Padilla, a doctoral fellow studying governance at New York University who is Puerto Rican, said that having “USA” on an ID “doesn’t combat ignorance.”

A 2017 poll showed that only a slim majority of Americans realize Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.