The Obama administration is spending nearly $50 million to hire and house 1,000 new federal workers to process immigration cases after President Obama announced that he would unilaterally protect up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation.

The Citizenship and Immigration Services agency will devote $40 million to annual salaries and almost $8 million a year to the lease of a new building just outside Washington, in which employees will review the claims of illegal immigrants who apply for newly protected status, according to the New York Times.