U.S. Customs System Outage Irks TravelersMonday's 'temporary outage' leaves thousands of international travelers stranded.
This story originally appeared onPCMag
A nationwide Customs and Border Protectionsystem outagestranded thousands of travelers at airports on Monday.
Folks trying to enter the U.S. via a handful of cities were met with long lines and excessive delays as customs officers manually processed international passengers.
Issues were reported inAtlanta,Ft. Lauderdale,Los Angeles,Miamiand Washington, D.C.,as well asBaltimore, Boston, Newark and San Francisco. All airports came back online Monday night, following what CBP called "a temporary outage" of its processing systems.
“美国海关和边境保护局experiencing a temporary outage with its processing systems at various airports of entry and taking immediate action to address the technology disruption," the agency said ina statement toABC News.
"CBP officers continue to process international travelers using alternative procedures until systems are back online," it continued. "Travelers at some ports of entry are experiencing longer than usual wait times and CBP officers are working to process travelers as quickly as possible while maintaining the highest levels of security."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond toPCMag's request for comment. According to a tweet, however, there is no indication the disruption was malicious.
According to social media accounts, conditions at Miami International Airport were particularly harsh: an army of angry, hungry peoplecrowded the hallwaysfor three-plus hours as rising temperatures causedfaintingandvomiting.
@cnnbrkplease let US Customs know the Miami airport could use a little help. Thousands of us waiting in a "line".pic.twitter.com/VGLUOUiaoP
— Garret Prather (@garretp)January 3, 2017
@wsvnimmigration @ M.I.A. Hundreds waiting, system has been down for hourspic.twitter.com/kuyR9u7boO
— Reza (@EGerami)January 3, 2017
Nightmare at the#Miamiairport for all incoming int'l flights: all systems were down at immigration. Hours of wait#miamiairportpic.twitter.com/MOorFyfv9x
— Sarah (@iLoveSassou)January 3, 2017
Similar scenes were depicted at Washington Dulles International Airport, where Twitter user Richard Walkerdocumented"36 unusable passport express kiosks, 20 unused global entry" stalls, eight agents and a one-hour wait.
