Customs and Border Protection computer outage leads to slowdown at international airports

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

Long lines formed at international airports across the United States on Friday after U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s computer system broke down and dramatically slowed the processing of thousands of people arriving from abroad, including U.S. citizens. Officials say they would not stop processing passengers, but said they had to switch to a slower, alternative process. It was not immediately clear how long people were having to wait, but reports on Twitter showed clogged terminals and extremely long lines.

“U.S. Customs and Border Protection is experiencing a temporary outage with its processing systems at various air ports of entry and is taking immediate action to address the technology disruption,” the Department of Homeland Security agency said in a statement. “CBP officers continue to process international travelers using alternative procedures until systems are back online. 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.”

Reports of frustration emerged on Twitter Friday afternoon, and Los Angeles International Airport said it dispatched its team “of Guest Experience Members to help at @CBP customs areas to help direct guests and provide other assistance.”

“@CBP systems are experiencing an issue which appears to be impacting multiple airports including LAX,” the airport said. “Officers are processing passengers manually so please check with your airline for the latest status of any flight impacts. More details as they become available.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/customs-and-border-protection-computer-outage-leads-to-slowdown-at-international-airports-across-the-united-states/2019/08/16/f33d33d6-c069-11e9-b873-63ace636af08_story.html

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Full headline: Customs and Border Protection computer outage leads to slowdown at international airports across the United States

[BeyondGeography]

1. Cut/slash/chop the government

Not sure of the cause but wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a symptom of the same phenomenon that lead to Epstein’s death. Understaffed and underfunded departments at Trump’s Potemkin government.

[DENVERPOPS]

4. Convenient........

Probably Putin testing his continued computer hacking skills. Can you imagine the nightmare in the U.S. if computers everywhere where to shut down????? Think Electrical Grid, Air Traffic Control, etc to name a few........

[dhill926]

2. What a nightmare...

bunch of cranky, tired people who just want to get home.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Returning to the USA, even when the system is working, can

wear on my nerves.

[IronLionZion]

5. Their IT systems reduce racism

Without it you get idiotic questions to prove that your US passport is real. How many innings are in a baseball game? Who is the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States? and other stuff that you really don't want to think about after a long exhausting overseas flight.



CBP's motto should be "at least we're not ICE".

[treestar]

9. Seriously?

I haven't run across that but I don't do a lot of international travel. Still that is dumb. A lot of people don't know the name of the Chief Justice. And not everyone loves baseball. And all the security features added to the documents ought to assure that they are real.

[IronLionZion]

10. Seriously

The Global Entry kiosks are infinitely better than dealing with the humans who believe there is only one type of US citizen.

That and TSA Precheck are definitely worth the cost.

[treestar]

11. Hope I can do that

It has been 10 years since I've been out of the country, so it could have changed.

[LittleGirl]

6. This is totally unacceptable.

Our tax dollars are spent to subsidize their business and they need to provide services we pay for cost effectively and efficiently. Having one point of failure for that length of time is a disgrace to our country. We can do better.
This. Is. Not. Normal.
Demand More.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Sometimes what happens

(and this happened to my own agency) some contractor doing unrelated construction work somewhere will accidentally cut a fiber line, which takes out everyone using it. Having some kind of redundant failover (at least one at the same level of service) is costly, so there is often some secondary line that an agency might have for contingency but it can only handle a minimal amount of the functionality of the primary line (thus forcing supplementing with "manual" processes). I don't know if that was the case here but I know my agency routinely connected to Customs for data exchanges and the outages were due to either a major data center power failure or some cut fiber somewhere and waiting for Level3 or Verizon or whoever to reroute the data traffic.

[LittleGirl]

12. Yes, that's possible

I used to work in IT. Still unacceptable. Thx

[treestar]

8. Gee let's become an even less attractive travel destination

How dumb. I've never experienced the like going in to other countries.

[ck4829]

13. Kick