DENVER, CO — Travelers arriving at the airport Monday morning were surprised to discover that the line stretching out the terminal doors was not, in fact, for security, but for the various agencies waiting their turn to screen the same passengers.
According to airport officials, the new “layered security coordination initiative” includes the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and several members of local law enforcement who reportedly “didn’t want to feel left out.”
Passengers first encountered TSA agents conducting the traditional removal of shoes, belts, and laptops. Immediately beyond that checkpoint stood a full line of CBP officers asking travelers if they had anything to declare, despite the fact that most were flying from Cleveland to Denver.
“I thought I was done,” said one traveler, clutching a half-empty coffee confiscated three checkpoints earlier. “Then I turned the corner and there were more uniforms.”
Behind CBP, masked ICE agents formed a third line, politely requesting identification from passengers who had just presented it twice. The process was further complicated when local police established an adjacent “verification lane” to confirm that everyone in the other lines had already been verified.
Airport authorities confirmed that the lines had grown so long that arriving passengers could now choose between entering the airport or simply joining the queue from the sidewalk and “working their way inward.”
Officials defended the system as efficient. “Each agency brings its own expertise,” one spokesperson explained. “TSA checks your bag, CBP asks where you’re going, ICE assesses if you are a threat, and local police are monitoring the government agencies.
At press time, several additional officers were seen forming a new line to screen the agents already waiting to screen passengers, with officials calling it “a proactive step to maintain order.”
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