Thousands of passengers are said to be backed up in the line at Customs at several U.S. airports because of the failure of Department of Homeland Security computer systems.
CNBC is reporting that the computer system in question is the one that checks airline passenger names against the Homeland Security terror watch list. Customs and Border Protection personnel are now said to be using alternate methods for processing passengers at airports where the computer systems have failed.
Social media reports of the outages began showing up at around 8 p.m. EST.
So far, the reports have identified the problem at New York's JFK, Boston Logan, San Francisco International Airport, Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Charlotte Douglas International Airport, and possibly other airports.
As of 9:05 p.m. EST the Department of Homeland Security hasn't confirmed the problems on its website or on social media channels.
NBC New York says DHS officials have confirmed that a "glitch" in the computer systems is causing backups at JFK. NBC News quotes high-level government officials confirming the problems, but said the officials could not estimate when the problem would be fixed.
UPDATE at 9:16 EST: CNBC now reports that the problem with the DHS computer systems has been resolved.