An Uber driver who was dropping off a customer at the Miami Airport has be fined $250 by airport security because she doesn’t speak English.
According to the Miami Herald, the security officer approached Carmen Hechevarria’s vehicle during passenger drop-off and began addressing her in English. After several attempts to communicate, officer Detra Johnson realized that Hechevarria didn’t understand English.
“She looked at me like she did not understand me,” MIA officer Detra Johnson wrote. Johnson called over a Spanish-speaking colleague to translate. “The more he spoke to her,” Johnson wrote, “the more he realized she could not speak or understand English.”
Johnston then proceeded to write Hechevarria a $250 citation for violating a Miami-Dade County law requiring for-hire drivers to “be able to communicate in the English language.”
While it certainly makes sense that a driver in the United States that has been hired to take passengers to destinations within the United States speak English, the Uber driver disagreed:
“I felt discriminated against,” Echevarria told the station in Spanish. “I asked the (passenger sitting in her car) ‘Can you please help translate what she is saying?’ Then she asked why, if I was an Uber driver, I didn’t speak English.” (Channel 6 Miami)
An Uber spokesman responded to the incident in support of the driver, noting that the law specifically says drivers need to be able to “communicate” in English, not necessarily speak it:
“It says they have to communicate in English,” Uber spokesman Javier Correoso said of the county rule. “It doesn’t say they have to speak English.”
Which, of course, begs the question: What is the difference in this scenario? Had a translator not been standing by, how would Hechevarria been able to “communicate” without speaking basic English?
While the driver may feel she is being discriminated against, the fact is that road signs and interactions with other drivers, law enforcement officers and pedestrians require speaking the language of the country you happen to be operating in, as highlighted by the Transportation Department:
“The Code doesn’t require the driver to be ‘proficient’ in the English language, but the driver should have some knowledge of the English language in order to communicate with a passenger in case of an emergency or to receive and understand basic directions from the passenger(s),” Damian wrote.
Makes sense to us, but that probably just means we’re racist xenophobes.
Ha. Nobody speaks English in Miami. The law should actually be the other way around.
WTF do they think ‘communicate’ means? Of course it means you’ve got to be able to speak the language. WTF do the people who run Uber use for brains? Fried eggs? [SARCASM]
Reminds me of landing at 3AM in Miami on an international flight. It was a long flight having crossed both the equator and GMT.
We got deplaned out on the tarmac and routed thru a bunch of tunnels and corridors and no one in uniform spoke english… Most of the passengers started to get concerned that maybe we never landed in the US but had been forced down in Cuba.
Maybe Miami International can take soee pointers from Florida dept of transport…
Is this driver a scum illegal?
Menzo, it sounds like it to me.
Damn scum illegals.
“Johnston then proceeded to write Hechevarria a $250 citation for violating a Miami-Dade County law requiring for-hire drivers to “be able to communicate in the English language.”
Wish Johnston had detained the bitch and called ICE. If she can’t speak English she is likely ILLEGAL and should be deported; never mind that she can’t read the road signs.
And who at UBER approved this car and driver ??? Does she have car insurance even though she can’t speak English ??
She probably was issued a driver’s license after taking the test in Spanish !!!
Sue the bastards for ENDANGERMENT if you live anywhere in Florida !!! 🙂
DK, in my area the Hispanics drive all over without insurance, Same for blacks. But neither group gets penalized when they’re caught without insurance. However, if you’re WHITE and caught without car insurance, you DO get penalized. Selective race-based enforcement aka affirmative action.
Because they know we will pay the fine.
Just flew through Miami, myself, and the ones who can speak English have such awful accents, they’re practically incomprehensible. And their culture shows through in the utter lack of organization and total chaos from the front doors of the terminal to the airliner hatch.
Arrest them and catapult their butt over the wall.
ANYONE HEAR FROM JOG (JUST ONE GUY) SINCE HE MOVE UP NORTH?
Anonymous, afraid not. I’d love to hear from him and Be Informed. I really miss their wisdom right about now.
BTW, they can take that false complaint of ‘discrimination’ and stuff it. This is America and our official language is English. That’s the language we use here, NOT something else. If the girl won’t learn English then she needs to go back to her native land. If that makes me a xenophobe then so be it. I stand up FOR my people and nation. I refuse to go AGAINST my people and nation.
How is she a citizen? Or is she not? (MH carefully avoids the question on status).
In a public facing job you need to speak English, just like you need to be able to do Math for accounting or STEM.
She should go (back) to a country where Spanish is the majority language and she will not be discriminated againsts? Does Venezuela or Mexican Drug Lords need Uber drivers?
TZ, I doubt very seriously if she’s a citizen. Excellent points.
If you go overseas you better be able to communicate with others. everyone overseas doesn’t necessarily speak english. Try to use the native language where ever you go.
It is also useful for nurses to read English as well as speak it. I am fond of Filipino nurses. I have met many proficient Filipino nurses. In fact one male nurse explained to me that he is a doctor and can not practice medicine in the U.S. Until graduating some classes and taking the required tests for the AMA. He spoke perfect English and was more than qualified as a nurse. So, for those who think I’m picking on Filipino’s now, maybe I am. So what. Nobody gets a free pass.
So, I go to visit my father in the hospital. He’s old and sick. Usually he’s in good spirits. But this day he’s all upset. “They almost killed me”, he exclaims. “What”, I said. “That Fipipino nurse tried to give me a shot. I told her I don’t get shots. She didn’t understand. SHE DOES’T SPEAK ENGLISH. I had to wrestle with her. (Mind you he’s a skinny sick old man.). She tried to force me to take the shot, but I fought her off.”
Apparently the man in the other bed was supposed to receive the shot. But the nurse could not read English. This shot would have killed my Dad. It was a powerful heart medicine.
So, I am concerned. I want to repeal the 1965 immigration Act. Stop both legal and illegal immigration of nonwhites. And require English for employment.
It is time to stop being timid. We either get the legislature and the 3ews who buy them off, to stop this bs or there will be a backlash not even Yellowstone will be able to calm.
__
The nurse should be reviewed for termination.
As for the article, drivers should absolutely be able to communicate in the native language. The Miami officer was right.
That’s why if I go to ER and I am seen by a doctor that I cannot understand I ask for someone else. These Doctors also look at you like they don’t understand what you are saying. I’m not paying high prices for this kind of treatment. If these doctors feel slighted by my demands then they should work on their English. Waiting
Not using anymore immigrant Drs. If not American stay away, good way to die fast…..
Anonymous, if you don’t like foreign doctors, stay away from the VA. They’ve got more foreign doctors than anyone around.
If there really is a doctor shortage in this country they why not expand medical school enrollments and increase class size? There are plenty of people who would make great doctors but weren’t admitted to medical school for some piddling reason, most likely because they didn’t know someone who had pull with the admissions committee. There is a very large talent pool out there.
So pay them 20 pesos instead of 20 dollars, watch them speak English pretty fast.
Again I call for English as the national language. our constitution is in English how would you know if your rights are violated if you cannot read our laws? We have states that have English by law. Canada requires both English and French. we worry about others feelings when we need worry about being understood.
Grampa
I would NEVER move to another country and not be able to speak their native language. Any employer in the US should make it mandatory to be able to speak and understand the English language…that is our native language here. She felt ‘discriminated against’??? Unbelievable!
Grandpa, excellent post. I don’t consider other feelings, period.
“It says they have to communicate in English,” Uber spokesman Javier Correoso said of the county rule. “It doesn’t say they have to speak English.”
How else does one communicate? She should be cleaning toilets somewhere, not driving a car where she can’t read signs.
Just use a cell phone translation program. I use it when I am negotiating with Spanish prostitutes
You make me laugh every time I read your post. That one made me laugh out loud. Waiting
The Law is the Friggen LAW!!! Tough shit.
The is the USA. We speak American English. Can’t speak some English get out.
In the USA we speak English PERIOD! That is the way it should be!!!
Sgt.
Try that bullshit in China.
Look man this only keeps happening because we inexplicably keep giving a shit.
When I was visiting Mexico I didn’t speak a word of spanish other than “gracias” and a few others like asking where the restroom was. I was allowed to drive, no problem, so long as my papers were in order. But I don’t know if I would be allowed to be hired to take on passengers. Big difference between being a tourist and being an employee in a business!
Get used to this stuff, this is what happens to a country when its local population dwindles and is over run by large groups of outsiders, mostly none of which want to even bother to become “citizens” of the country they choose to enter on their own legal or illegal. And as long as its made easier with all, kinds of benefits who cares.
As time goes on, and this stuff snowballs, our white grand kids, and yes even the black English speaking kids will find life very different in another 30 to 50 years.
Before my mother passed away, she was staying in an elder care home. She sufffered from mild dementia. My sister had taken care of the arrangements as my sister lived nearer her than I did. From all appearances sake, the center was certainly upscale. I visited my mom and in attempting to get directions to her room, I realized that the Hispanic girl pushing the medication pill cart for each room did not speak English at all. The dispensed medication were in small pill cups, and I am not sure if there was identification of residents dosages by name or by room number. If you can’t read English, how do you know who is getting what? I went away away feeling grateful my mother was not on any medication….but in hindsight, I wonder if she would have mistakenly taken pills meant for someone else. America: hiring people who do not have command of English in life threatening jobs has to stop….period.
To comply with current immigration law, to become a citizen you must learn English.
The progressives purposely flooded the country with people that spoke no English. It is democrats intent to give them citizenship without meeting immigration law, i.e. Millions of people will remain disadvantaged, unemployable, and unable to be part of American society. As an under class they will be likely fall into minority status that the Democrats believe they can exploit.
They can live in the slums of America’s Democrat stronghold cities, contribute to rampant crime, where ignorance is rewarded as long as you vote democrat.
B from CA is precisely right:
The 1965 immigration act was tge beginning of the end for American culture. This useful idiot did not come here to share in our customs, embrace individual responsibility, or assimilate in any way. Rather, to parasitically bleed the the system for all its worth.
They ALL have to go back. We neither need nor want them here. FFS, could you imagine sneaking in a foreign country, having the locals pay for your food and housing, and not even speak the effn language?
Pack a bag, Sanchez. The ride on the gravy train is over.
The courts are going to shoot that law down. I’m all for mandatory English language in America but the courts don’t see it the same way.
Of course not. Without non-English speaking immigrants voting illegally and the cemetery vote the Democrats would lose most of their elections.
In the not too distant future illegals will take over America all by design, got a good jump on that eventuality now. Profits must increase is the unstoppable mantra until the masses are dirt poor. Prices are already way too damn high in comparison with current existence costs. Profits stale, no problem. Inflate prices, problem solved for those that matter, the majority can just die. The United States of Death in the near making. Crony capitalism is the death merchant.
These are not competitive businesses. It’s misleading for us to talk about profit and work ethic, etc, etc. They exist as a result of subsidies, taken out of the wallets of normals.
I agree with ALL the comments having to do with EVERYONE coming into the U.S.of A., LEARN to speak ENGLISH!!!!!!! I wish it was MANDATORY, for ALL coming into our country!!! When I was stationed in Germany, we HAD to take a quick class of German. Having a mother who spoke the language, I was pretty lucky. She also spoke Greek, so stationed in Greece we didn’t have a problem. Our elected officials NEED to make it a LAW, that English SHOULD be the language of the land!!!!! GET IT RIGHT Washington!!!!!!
ENGLISH: FIGURE IT OUT OR GET THE F@%# OUT!
If she has no better command of English than that, what the hell is Uber doing hiring her. Also, what the hell is the b—h doing in our country in the first place?
Detra Johnson is a black, female name? The reason why most of the people in this story have clothes, food, and cars with fresh paint, is radical Reconstruction. Most all the people complaining about Carmen Hechevarrrrria can only exist in violation of the social contract.