Retirees to handle immigration delays

The massive backlog of immigration applications in the U.S. has affected different groups such as those who want to gain citizenship before November’s elections and people who hurriedly filed their paperwork before a fee increase last year.

In order to try to lessen the load of the millions of applications, the Bush administration approved an “emergency plan” last week. The program would involve rehiring several hundred retired government workers to cut the delay. However, according to one immigration official in an Associated Press article:

Linda Springer, director of the Office of Personnel Management, said Citizenship and Immigration Services estimates it needs 2,500 additional employees over the next few months to meet workload demands.

Though a quick fix is certainly better than nothing, much more will need to be done soon to diminish delays.

Image- MSNBC (“People line up outside the Immigration and Naturalization Service office in Detroit in Jan. 2002”)

Sources- Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, New York Times, Associated Press