Customs systems back online after outage at airports nationwide

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Field Operations, officers conduct standard arrival screening operations at Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, Jan. 10, 2018. U.S. Customs and Border Protection photo by Glenn Fawcett

U.S. Customs and Border Protection systems at airports nationwide encountered an unexpected outage Friday afternoon, leaving passengers waiting in extremely long lines, according to multiple news outlets.

“CBP is experiencing a temporary outage with its processing systems at various air ports of entry & is taking immediate action to address the technology disruption,” CBP Tweeted. “CBP officers continue to process international travelers using alternative procedures until systems are back online. CBP officers are working to process travelers as quickly as possible while maintaining the highest levels of security.”

By 6:30 p.m. Eastern time, CPB said that systems were back up and running and that operations were slowly returning to normal.

” The affected systems are coming back online and travelers are being processed. CBP will continue to monitor the incident. There is no indication the disruption was malicious in nature at this time,” it said on its Twitter account.

CBP added that no departing flights had been impacted, although lines were longer than normal across the nation and that travelers should continue to expect residual delays.

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Brian Bradley

Based in Washington, D.C., Brian covers international trade policy for American Shipper and FreightWaves. In the past, he covered nuclear defense, environmental cleanup, crime, sports, and trade at various industry and local publications.