How's the partial federal government shutdown affecting you?

[NHdisneylover]

My oldest flew back to the US on 1 January to return to university. They were messaging me from the line at immigration saying they've never seen it so long and so understaffed. They'd forgotten about the shutdown and were wondering what was going on

DH and I fly to the US today. We're expecting long waits for immigration. And I can't say that I don't worry a smidge about air traffic controllers being under so much added stress.

 

[morgan98]

I am posting from the Secuirty checkpoint line at the ATL airport. It is definitely impacting things, making the Monday morning rush substantially worse.

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

I'm geniunely interested in this cuz that's crazy. I mean I know when we went through customs in orlando coming back from jamaica they were using facial recognition which took zero time at all. But letting everyone just go through? Crazy.

Do you happen to have some links regarding the incident so that I can look at it? I'm not finding anything but my searching skills may be lacking at the moment

What day was it? I looked on the website and they only had wait times that I could find up until 1/4/19 but I could have totally been looking in the wrong place.

I think letting everybody go through customs is less crazy. Sure they might have missed some fruit or wood, which has some potentially bad effects. They also could have missed some drugs or guns but I think overall letting a few flights skip customs isn’t that big of a deal. Over half the airports I’ve been to they just take the form and send 90% of people through.

Opening up and letting people go through immigration would be super strange as they’d have a huge chunk of missing records, but customs is different to me. Based on your mention of the facial scanner, could you be thinking of the immigration part?

 

[mnrose]

I think letting everybody go through customs is less crazy. Sure they might have missed some fruit or wood, which has some potentially bad effects. They also could have missed some drugs or guns but I think overall letting a few flights skip customs isn’t that big of a deal. Over half the airports I’ve been to they just take the form and send 90% of people through.

Opening up and letting people go through immigration would be super strange as they’d have a huge chunk of missing records, but customs is different to me. Based on your mention of the facial scanner, could you be thinking of the immigration part?

Facial scanner is immigration. Customs is where they check your bags after you've picked them up. I have no link, but I was looking at wait times on the CBP website where it shows by hour and day the wait times. My friend came back on either Jan 2 or 3rd....don't recall the exact date and not going to look. That's where I found the long time on Jan 2...so without checking, I'm assuming that was the one.

 

[mnrose]

I am posting from the Secuirty checkpoint line at the ATL airport. It is definitely impacting things, making the Monday morning rush substantially worse.

I'm flying in a couple of weeks, and if this nonsense is still going on, I plan to arrive 3 hours early. Taking no chances. Right now, I see wait times increasing....and despite people saying "oh, it's within normal wait times", that's not terribly reassuring. Because there are times when "normal" is well over an hour. LOL.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I think letting everybody go through customs is less crazy. Sure they might have missed some fruit or wood, which has some potentially bad effects. They also could have missed some drugs or guns but I think overall letting a few flights skip customs isn’t that big of a deal. Over half the airports I’ve been to they just take the form and send 90% of people through.

Opening up and letting people go through immigration would be super strange as they’d have a huge chunk of missing records, but customs is different to me. Based on your mention of the facial scanner, could you be thinking of the immigration part?

It was late at night but yeah the facial recognition was immigration that I was thinking of. The rest of the stuff though I was thinking in terms of actual customs.

Maybe I think it's crazy because having watched a lot of episodes of a show it's absolutely shocking what people try to bring in, from counterfeit items, to food that can bring in diseases, to animals that can bring in diseases (like dead animals), to drugs, to weapons, to not declaring money, to not declaring goods and thus trying to avoid paying taxes on it, to everything. It's actually is a big deal even if it's only a few flights.

Letting people through because they don't appear to trigger anything such as dogs sniffing and finding stuff and people watching behaviors, etc isn't the same thing as letting people through because of a government shut down and you're getting a long line so you just say screw it let'em all through. That was what the other person was saying or at least the message I got.

 

[Turksmom]

Other than the above, just that I'm waiting to go get DS a new passport, as I'm assuming they aren't processing them right now.

I just checked into getting mine. They are currently being processed as usual. I plan to take care of it ASAP because I'm not sure if that will change

 

[dish rag]

My oldest flew back to the US on 1 January to return to university. They were messaging me from the line at immigration saying they've never seen it so long and so understaffed. They'd forgotten about the shutdown and were wondering what was going on

DH and I fly to the US today. We're expecting long waits for immigration. And I can't say that I don't worry a smidge about air traffic controllers being under so much added stress.

We went through twice in the last few days and several times since the shutdown and have noticed no difference. We were pulled off once and searched, my wife had her wristwatch in it's box, she keeps the receipts of jewelry in her box, the watch was $16,000. They wanted her to pay duty on it calling it a luxury item. Well she was bringing it to the US to keep it in Florida. We argued that whats the difference if it's in the box or on her wrist? They admitted that they didn't know how to handle it and let us have our passports gave the box back and let us go. I know you travel a lot so that's all just as an aside. It was strange though and I hope we didn't get flagged to be checked every time.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I just checked into getting mine. They are currently being processed as usual. I plan to take care of it ASAP because I'm not sure if that will change

Oooh, thank you!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Facial scanner is immigration. Customs is where they check your bags after you've picked them up. I have no link, but I was looking at wait times on the CBP website where it shows by hour and day the wait times. My friend came back on either Jan 2 or 3rd....don't recall the exact date and not going to look. That's where I found the long time on Jan 2...so without checking, I'm assuming that was the one.

I didn't find 145mins on the 2nd, or the 3rd, but I did on the first. It showed though that max of 145 was for non-u.s with max of 144 for u.s. from 7-8pm. But the average wait time was 10min during that time for u.s. and 12min for non-u.s.. During that time 672 people were in and out in 0-15mins but it showed they had 18booths of primary inspection open at that time. They even had a longer one that day but they had even more booths open at that time. Given that it was New Years Day I can understand certain spikes in time. That said it looks like there's not been a wait anywhere near the max of 145 after 1/1 up through 1/5 now.

But looking at the numbers, what each of them meant, it didn't seem abnormal given other times of the day and other days as well nor did it actually tell me that they just let everyone through because of a shutdown causing long lines and so they just decided to not care.

I really tried to look but I can't find anything that says because of the shutdown lines have increased so badly at Customs that they just decided to forgo their normal procedures of looking for things and behaviors and just let everyone pass directly because of the shutdown. I'd love to look over resources on it though I'm curious by nature

 

[tinkerdorabelle]

Wow the drama is high on this one.
We've got it all, the cold and heartless who believe they are morally superior because they believe in personal responsibility and the sanctimonious high horse riders who disagree with them.

And then you have the self ascribed morally superior sanctimonious who believe they are above both lol.

 

[skyblue17]

I think letting everybody go through customs is less crazy. Sure they might have missed some fruit or wood, which has some potentially bad effects. They also could have missed some drugs or guns but I think overall letting a few flights skip customs isn’t that big of a deal. Over half the airports I’ve been to they just take the form and send 90% of people through.

Opening up and letting people go through immigration would be super strange as they’d have a huge chunk of missing records, but customs is different to me. Based on your mention of the facial scanner, could you be thinking of the immigration part?

In my (limited) experience, customs kind of seems to be on an honor system anyway. I travel to Jamaica every year and have never once had my bag searched upon return to the US. Every time I've returned to the country, the customs line has basically involved handing over the form and being waved through.

Anyway, I am flying in three weeks so I am appreciating the updates about experiences here. Though man, I really hope this is done in three weeks, for all involved!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

In my (limited) experience, customs kind of seems to be on an honor system anyway. I travel to Jamaica every year and have never once had my bag searched upon return to the US. Every time I've returned to the country, the customs line has basically involved handing over the form and being waved through.

Anyway, I am flying in three weeks so I am appreciating the updates about experiences here. Though man, I really hope this is done in three weeks, for all involved!

Yeah when I was watching that shows you don't get pulled in on a high percentage. It could be just a normal day in the neighborhood so to speak with a lot of people going through without being secondarily checked and you basically go on through and pick up your bags. If a lot of people were being pulled in for secondary check that would be abnormal and maybe cause for concern if a lot of people at once are being triggered.

That's really why I wondered with the PP comment because it's one thing if it's normal procedures going on (which isn't cause for concern) it's another if the shutdown is affecting those normal procedures where they've become lax on it (which is a cause for concern to me at least).

I won't be flying international but my husband will be flying in a few weeks and then I'll be flying with him come late Feb/early March as well so I've been keeping an eye out too for people's stories.

 

[DopeyDame]

Facial scanner is immigration. Customs is where they check your bags after you've picked them up. I have no link, but I was looking at wait times on the CBP website where it shows by hour and day the wait times. My friend came back on either Jan 2 or 3rd....don't recall the exact date and not going to look. That's where I found the long time on Jan 2...so without checking, I'm assuming that was the one.

If it was customs, not immigration, then as others have said, just walking through isn't really unusual. It would actually be far more unusual to have a long line for customs (since the hold up is usually at immigration, so customs is a more steady flow of people.) So if there was a long line, perhaps they were undergoing some sort of enhanced screening for a period of time and then returned to their regular operations when your friend got there. Or maybe the agents at the door got notice that the dogs had finished sniffing everything on the tarmac rather than in baggage claim, or all the flights were in for the next few hours and everyone had already been screened, or the random checks were completed for that shift, or what the real reason was. Unless CPB announced "hey, we're not getting paid, so go on through" I have a *really* hard time believing that they just stopped customs enforcement because every single agent/officer on shift didn't feel like doing their job. If that happened, it should absolutely be front page news. My guess is this is more an apocryphal story than a real national security concern.

 

[morgan98]

I'm flying in a couple of weeks, and if this nonsense is still going on, I plan to arrive 3 hours early. Taking no chances. Right now, I see wait times increasing....and despite people saying "oh, it's within normal wait times", that's not terribly reassuring. Because there are times when "normal" is well over an hour. LOL.

The lines are crazy. They are using the dogs on even a broader basis today. Once we finally made it to the checkpoints, shoes did not need to be removed, jackets could be left on, toiltries could stay in bags. The only thing that needs to come out were electronic devices larger than your phone.

This was in the regular lines, not Precheck.

Nice to see my shampoo is no longer considered dangerous...

 

[SteveH]

Dropped my son off at the airport, TSA had a big sign saying at it would open at 4:10, never seen it closed before, but makes perfect sense at a smaller regional airport. He said he was through fast, and the line moved right along. Maybe it's an idea to safe costs in the future, ah who am I kidding.

 

[DopeyDame]

The lines are crazy. They are using the dogs on even a broader basis today. Once we finally made it to the checkpoints, shoes did not need to be removed, jackets could be left on, toiltries could stay in bags. The only thing that needs to come out were electronic devices larger than your phone.

This was in the regular lines, not Precheck.

Nice to see my shampoo is not longer considered dangerous...

On our thanksgiving trip they had the dogs in line. Loved it! So much easier than the chaos that usually happens at the scanner.

 

[skyblue17]

JFK always has dogs in line! I also encountered a dog in Atlanta this spring and accidentally said hi to it (just verbally acknowledged it, by default!) and got yelled at, oops.

 

[slpeters]

In my (limited) experience, customs kind of seems to be on an honor system anyway. I travel to Jamaica every year and have never once had my bag searched upon return to the US. Every time I've returned to the country, the customs line has basically involved handing over the form and being waved through.

This has been my experience as well. I've flown in and out of the country quite a bit over the last twenty-five years or so and I've literally NEVER been checked at customs, not while entering the US nor any another nation.

Dh is flying to Phoenix in the morning for work. He always cuts things so close when he flies alone, so I'm kind of worried. I know I'll never get him to go as early as I think he should; maybe I can get him to go as early as I would under normal circumstances.

 

[mnrose]

I didn't find 145mins on the 2nd, or the 3rd, but I did on the first. It showed though that max of 145 was for non-u.s with max of 144 for u.s. from 7-8pm. But the average wait time was 10min during that time for u.s. and 12min for non-u.s.. During that time 672 people were in and out in 0-15mins but it showed they had 18booths of primary inspection open at that time. They even had a longer one that day but they had even more booths open at that time. Given that it was New Years Day I can understand certain spikes in time. That said it looks like there's not been a wait anywhere near the max of 145 after 1/1 up through 1/5 now.

But looking at the numbers, what each of them meant, it didn't seem abnormal given other times of the day and other days as well nor did it actually tell me that they just let everyone through because of a shutdown causing long lines and so they just decided to not care.

I really tried to look but I can't find anything that says because of the shutdown lines have increased so badly at Customs that they just decided to forgo their normal procedures of looking for things and behaviors and just let everyone pass directly because of the shutdown. I'd love to look over resources on it though I'm curious by nature

Well then, I guess my friend lied when she posted that on her social media account, complete with photo. Miraculous what you can do with photoshop.