TSA wait times up to 6 hours as ICE, other agents deployed to 14 airports
Source: CBS News
The Trump administration deployed ICE and other Homeland Security agents to 14 of the nation's airports on Monday to help shuttle passengers through overcrowded TSA checkpoints. In one airport, the security line wait-time was up to six hours.
The agents are filling in for TSA officers in some places due to mass call-outs during the partial government shutdown that is keeping the officers from receiving their paychecks.
(snip)
Across the country, some travelers expressed hope that federal agents might help ease the TSA bottleneck, but others were skeptical, including TSA officer and union representative Pascual Contreras.
"I don't believe that they're trained in a way that they can help us," Contreras said. "I've seen them outside standing around, I don't know if they are doing anything."
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/tsa-wait-times-up-to-6-hours-as-ice-other-agents-deployed-to-14-airports/ar-AA1ZicKX
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Pittsburgh International Airport has no TSA wait lines, but ICE came here yesterday. There is nothing for them to do except stand around in groups, watching TSA do all the work for no pay.
Yes our airport was much busier when it was first built - or should I say "rebuilt" - in 1990. We even had British Airways for awhile, and US Air called Pittsburgh its home ... until they moved out.
Many people living in western Pennsylvania have found that it's no more expensive or time-consuming to drive than to fly to most places on the East Coast. If you're going west, like past Chicago or Saint Louis, flying is better and probably cheaper. Last time I flew anywhere was to Las Vegas, probably 6 or 7 years ago.
I take frequent trips to New York to visit my son and DIL, and I've found Amtrak to be the best mode of transportation.
And those short haul flights are ridiculous in cost. I think it was cheaper to fly to Chicago from Philly than to fly to Cincinnati (which for some reason, always seems to have a premium)!
The last west coast trip I took was to San Francisco and that was almost 25 years ago. My last flight was down to the Bahamas back in 2015.
But all during the '90s, I got what I dubbed "plane neck". There was one year where I went to 6 cities in 8 weeks and that was enough.
My worst flight was to Boston (I always either took Amtrak, Trailways (and Peter Pan), or drove, but had a training course there so flew). I will never fly into Logan ever again if I can help it. 
