U.S. agency ready for guest worker program

WASHINGTON, March 8 (UPI) -- The director of the U.S. immigration agency says he would use outside contractors to help with any backlog of cases brought about by a guest-worker program.

Emilio Gonzalez, director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said "things have happened" since he told Congress last October the agency wasn't prepared to handle a proposed guest-worker program, The Washington Times reported. Gonzalez' agency handles citizenship or permanent-resident-status requests from immigrants.

Gonzalez said USCIS would require "additional tools and resources, but we're ready" for a guest-worker program. Those additional resources would include additional outsourcing of some work, the Times said.

The director took exception with a Government Accountability Office study, reported by the Times, regarding fraud.

Gonzalez said: "When we identify fraud, we take actions, we work with our colleagues at the Department of Homeland Security. I'm not sure I could give you a total number of fraud cases out of a total number we adjudicate, but this is a huge agency. I mean, we do 135,000 background checks a day."