Daily Times

Weary travelers returning to the US amid coronavirus-related travel restrictions are being greeted by long lines and hourslong waits for required medical screenings at airports.

The dense crowds at 13 airports where travelers from Europe are being funneled – among the busiest across the country – formed even as public health officials called for “social distancing” to stem the spread of the pandemic.

Austin Boschen was returning from a spring break trip to Jalisco, Mexico, with his girlfriend and described the situation at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport as “atrocious, no semblance of a line beyond the barriers and no officials or staff around to direct.”

He and his girlfriend managed to get near the front of the crowd and learned people there had already been waiting for two hours, he wrote in an email; he reached the head of the line 2 1/2 hours later, and then waited another hour and a half to see an agent.

“The entire time people in the crowd would yell out in anger, and Customs officers would yell at people to not take pictures,” he wrote. “Short chants among the room would start and stop periodically. It was very tense at times, the crowd was very agitated.”