By SUZANNE GAMBOA
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The number of people who legally immigrated to the United States dropped 17 percent last year, largely because of administrative problems, a Homeland Security Department report said.

A total of 1.05 million people became legal permanent residents in 2007, compared with 1.27 million a year earlier, according to the report by Homeland Security's Office of Immigration Statistics.

Another Homeland Security office, Citizenship and Immigration Services, came under fire after processing slowed because immigrants flooded the agency with applications last year in advance of a dramatic increase in filing fees. The delays will keep some people from becoming citizens in time to vote in November.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Veronica Nur Valdes said Friday that comparing the 2007 legal resident numbers to the previous year is unfair. Citizenship and Immigration Services hit the height of a five-year effort to reduce backlogs in 2006, and the drop in green cards reflects that, she said.

Green cards signify legal permanent residence for aliens who carry them.

"This decrease was due primarily to application processing issues" at Citizenship and Immigration Services, the report made public Thursday said. It compared the past two years' numbers.

Willie Ramos, Washington director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said Citizenship and Immigration Services shifted workers from other duties last year to deal with the hundreds of thousands of applications it received.

"It is troubling that at a time when our immigration system should be running at its top notch because of the discussion running across the country, that people cannot move forward in the process to become legal permanent residents so they can work out their last step before becoming a legalized citizen," said Ramos, whose group works to improve the citizenship process.

To become a citizen, most immigrants must be a legal permanent resident at least five years.

Congress failed last year to pass a sweeping immigration bill aimed at curbing illegal immigration and fortifying the nation's borders. Without the immigration change, the issue has been hotly debated in political elections, while some states and local communities have begun their own crackdowns.

Foreigners living abroad can get green cards once they are granted visas to immigrate to the United States. Also, people already living in the country who are refugees, certain types of temporary workers, foreign students, family members and some undocumented immigrants also can apply for green cards.

Most people who received green cards in 2007 were already living in the United States, and two-thirds were granted permanent residency because they had family ties to a U.S. citizen or another legal permanent resident.

Most were living in California, followed by New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey and Illinois, the DHS report said.