The White House is releasing more details about President Barack Obama's two-day trip to the Gulf region next week to survey the response to the massive oil spill.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs says Obama will make stops at the U.S. Coast Guard station in Gulfport, Mississippi and in Theodore, Alabama a staging area for many aspects of the response. Gibbs says Obama may also visit Orange Beach, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida where oil is beginning to wash ashore.

Gibbs says Obama will meet with residents and local officials in each of those states. His previous trips to the region have been to Louisiana, and none have kept him in the area overnight.

At the same time, a sheriff in suburban New Orleans has asked federal authorities to investigate reports that illegal immigrants are working on the Gulf oil spill cleanup effort.

St. Bernard Parish Sheriff Jack A. Stephens said Wednesday that he asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement weeks ago to look into the reports.

ICE spokesman Brian Hale says the agency has not conducted any work site enforcement at the request of local officials and has not made any arrests.

Stephens says he wants to protect the community from "criminal elements" and not "people who want to earn an honest buck."

Immigrant rights groups lament that the request comes at a time when many people are searching for work.

However, the government is demanding "more detail and openness" from BP about how the company is handling damage claims from the Gulf oil spill.

Admiral Thad Allen, the man heading the government's spill response, says he'll be meeting with BP officials Wednesday to discuss problems in the handling of mounting claims.

Allen told BP's chief in a letter that he wants "complete, ongoing transparency" in how claims are processed and evaluated.

One fishing guide in Louisiana says he was told recently BP hadn't even begun working on a personal claim he filed several weeks ago and he's now worried about what'll happen to the business claim he filed this week. A frustrated Mike Helmer says everything is "too little, too late."

Also, a wildlife rescue center in Louisiana says it has gotten more than five times as many oily birds in the past few days than in the previous six weeks combined.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported Wednesday that the center at Fort Jackson has reported a little more than 400 birds since the BP well blew out April 20.

The report says more than 350 of those have been reported since Thursday.

Oil from the leak has washed up on shores from Louisiana to Florida. The Coast Guard has said the cleanup could ultimately take years.

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