LAX hardly alone when it comes to Customs congestion

Actually, Miami International and JFK seem to be in worse shape, according to the WSJ's Scott McCartney. Not that it's a cakewalk to get through Tom Bradley - average wait times in May jumped more than 100 percent compared with a year earlier and the maximum wait was nearly 100 minutes. But at JFK's Terminal 4 the longest wait was almost three hours. Also not great are Dallas and San Francisco. And we're not even into the crowded summer vacation season. Who's to blame? Congress, of course. From the Journal:

CBP acknowledges that wait times have increased. It says the problem is the agency doesn't have enough officers. Over the past three years, the number of people arriving at U.S. airports from abroad is up 12%, to record levels of more than 100 million a year, a senior CBP official said. Yet the number of agents at airports authorized by Congress essentially is unchanged, the CBP said. Airports and airlines say long lines got longer this spring with the sequestration, the series of federal budget cuts that went into effect March 1. Several airports such as LAX and Miami complain CBP isn't paying overtime for extra officers at peak hours. CBP says it is saving up its overtime budget for this summer, and has been able to manage sequestration cuts by saving money elsewhere.