The Homeland Security Department’s citizenship agency has put out a call for volunteers to help process applications for a fraud-plagued program that allows unauthorized migrants from some Latin American nations to skip the border and fly directly into the U.S.

The program has welcomed more than a half-million migrants who lack legal visas to enter the U.S. It was abruptly paused several weeks ago after an internal review found massive fraud, but the call for volunteers suggests U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is looking for a quick restart.

In the email call for volunteers, Donna Campagnolo, USCIS chief human capital officer, said the agency wants volunteers by the end of this week.

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“This will be a full-time, remote detail for 180 days. No prior experience is necessary,” Ms. Campagnolo wrote. “Training will be provided, and overtime may be available.”

The email didn’t say when the program would be revived. USCIS declined to comment, saying the email “speaks for itself.”

Emilio Gonzalez, who ran USCIS under President George W. Bush and who obtained the email, said it was a worrying move for a program that had to be paused because of fraud.

He said those recruited to review the applications are low-level staffers who lack the expertise to detect fraud. Indeed, the email seems to expressly forbid full-fledged immigration officers from participating.

“This administration is intent on driving this program through regardless of the consequences. That’s what’s bothersome from a national security perspective,” Mr. Gonzalez told The Washington Times. “You’re going to tell me in what, four weeks, you figured out the massive fraud and are ready to start over again?”

The program, colloquially known as CHNV, allows citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the U.S. on “parole,” a quasi-legal status, without a visa. They are supposed to have financial sponsors in the U.S. to vouch for them before arriving at American airports.

Biden officials say the administration is reducing pressure on the border by allowing as many as 30,000 people a month to enter. Republicans in Congress say the program is on a legally questionable footing and still means illegal immigrants are entering en masse, putting pressure on communities that end up housing and schooling and providing emergency medical care.

USCIS reviews the financial support applications, and Customs and Border Protection approves airport entry.

Homeland Security confirmed this month that it had suspended the program after an internal review found striking indications of fraud in applicants for financial sponsors.

Investigators found the same 100 IP addresses were used on more than 51,000 financial support applications. A single address in Tijuana, Mexico, was used 1,328 times.

Looking at individual sponsor names, some 3,200 people filed more than 100,000 applications. That means each purported to sponsor more than 30 migrants.

USCIS has not detailed what steps it is taking to fix the fraud.

Joseph Edlow, the agency’s acting director in the Trump administration, said recruiting volunteers who don’t have training as immigration officers is a sign that USCIS isn’t making the proper fixes.

“This eliminates their chances of catching fraud,” Mr. Edlow said. “To have staffers who have no connection to the immigration work of the agency reviewing forms in the hopes they’re either going to catch fraud or make a determination or a review, in this case, that someone is or is not eligible is laughable.”

While declining to discuss the call for volunteers, Homeland Security defended its ability to detect fraud.

“DHS has review mechanisms in place to detect and prevent fraud and abuse in our immigration processes. DHS takes any abuse of its processes very seriously,” the department said in a statement.

It promised that the program would be restarted “as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards.”

The financial sponsorship form can be completed online.

It asks would-be sponsors about their sources of income and assets. The form prods sponsors to describe the resources they plan to use to help house and settle the migrants.

The Washington Times reported earlier this year that smugglers were selling financial support affidavits for $5,000.

Mr. Gonzalez said he encountered a case this summer involving someone who paid $6,000 to a broker in Nicaragua to connect with a financial sponsor. The applicant had no ties whatsoever to the sponsor.

The administration says paying for sponsorships was “not encouraged” but did not say it was against the rules.

In some high-profile cases, immigrants who arrived via the CHNV program were found to be living in government-run shelters, which experts said would seem to violate the point of having a sponsor.

One of those is a Haitian man who has been charged with raping a disabled 15-year-old girl at the shelter in Rockland, Massachusetts.