So we landed at Miami International yesterday afternoon

[malaise]

We spent two hours in line at the passport clearing section. Mant of the booths had no staff. It look one hour and thirty five minutes to travel from Jamaica. Everyone was pissed. But it was seeing how the old people and parents with young babies were treated that really annoyed me.

People spent money to visit family or to come shopping and how we are treated is unacceptable by any standard.

[Recursion]

1. I'm so sorry to hear that, malaise

That surprises me; MIA has been expanding its TSA presence* for a long time based on increased traffic.

(PS where were you in Jamaica? I was in Kingston for a while. I miss the meat pies.)

* or at least its TSA funding... Hmm...

[FLPanhandle]

2. Long customs lines are common in less developed countries...oh and the USA.

Limited funding for agents so long lines.

When I fly to Europe, we breeze through. Returning to the US, especially if a few international planes have landed at the same time, is a nightmare.

[COLGATE4]

3. We came back to the states by ship from England last week.

Normally, Immigration and Customs is a very routine and simple procedure. Not so this time. We stopped in New York (final destination was Miami) where every passenger - 2,850 some, almost all US or Brits - was forced to go through an interminable scrutiny one by one. I was one of the first and it took me 2 hours to get through. Some people got in line at 8:00 (as instructed) and had not yet cleared Immigration at 2:00 that afternoon. Unlike airports, there was no separate line for US citizens.

Half the Immigration booths were unmanned. In our line, the agent's computer froze. No effort was made to shift us to another line. When we asked to do so the INS agent gave a classic answer: "Well, I don't have a computer in my back pocket" and continued to refuse to let us join a line whose computers were still working.

In addition to being almost all Brits and US citizens, most of the passengers were elderly - I'd guess the median age was somewhere around 78-82. In spite of this, the Immigration people took great delight in closely (and slowly!) questioning elderly British couples to detect if they were in fact agents of ISIS.

Shameful. What a horrible image we're projecting to the world with crap like thi.s

[CurtEastPoint]

4. ATL is usually pretty quick but as far as hassles, the EU has it down pat.

I have never EVER had anything more than a cursory glance, stamp and welcome coming into any European airport immigration, and it has never taken more than at most 10 minutes.

[panader0]

5. malaise takes a vacation! Sounds like a movie...

Sorry about the long wait.

[pinboy3niner]

7. I hope she doesn't make the mistake...

...of forgetting about the dog tied to the rear bumper.



Or eating the wet sandwiches.

[malaise]

9. ROFL

:it was freaking crazy. A British couple in front of us said we wee treated worse than cattle - I told him that was untrue because we were not likely to be slaughtered at the end of the line. We all laughed.

[BlueJazz]

6. If I would have been there, I would have greeted you with open arms and smiles.

[malaise]

10. LOL- that's sweet

Berenice Man and his band had greeters take them out of the line - the rest of us were not so lucky..

[brooklynite]

8. Global Entry is a godsend...

I know some people here aren't comfortable with having DHS do a background check, but I'm though immigration and customs in about 5 minutes.