An Uber driver in South Florida was given a hefty ticket for violating a county ordinance that had nothing to do with her driving.
Cell phone footage obtained exclusively by NBC Miami's sister station Telemundo 51 captured Carmen Echevarria, getting a $250 ticket from a Miami-Dade Police officer outside Miami International Airport. Her violation? Not being able to speak English correctly.
“I felt discriminated against,” Echevarria told the station. “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.“
In May 2016, Miami-Dade County issued a memorandum with rules for transportation network drivers – with one of the requirements being the ability to communicate in English.
“I told her ‘so sorry, a little English’ then she called the inspector who also confronted me and told me in order to be an Uber driver I need it to speak English”.