"Amnesty rush"? Well, duh.

George W. Bush's January 2004 proposal to extend amnesty to illegal immigrants, charges the activist group Judicial Watch, "prompted a surge of illegal border-crossings that the administration then sought to cover up," summarized a June 28 Washington Post story.

Citing portions of a 2004 U.S. Border Patrol survey obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, Judicial Watch reported that "61 percent of a sample of detainees who had been caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexican border in the wake of Bush's proposal said they had been informed by the Mexican government or the media that the Bush administration was offering amnesty to illegal immigrants. Nearly 45 percent said the purported amnesty influenced their decision to enter the United States illegally."

The Bush amnesty proposal, which has been repackaged as an immigration reform bill sponsored by senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), has been presented as a solution for the ever-escalating illegal immigration crisis. However, as THE NEW AMERICAN reported at the time (see "Amnesty and Betrayal" in our February 9, 2004 issue), the proposal triggered a predictable "amnesty rush" as illegal immigrants surged across the border to take advantage of the offer. Thus 80 percent of those detained at the border answered in the affirmative when asked by the Border Patrol if they would apply for amnesty, one of them bluntly stating: "Yes, I am not stupid."

The Border Patrol terminated the survey on January 27, 2004, subject to an immediate gag order, because it had produced "politically inconvenient and/or potentially embarrassing data," charged Judicial Watch in its 16-page report. "The timing of the survey's start and early dismissal, and the [Department of Homeland Security] gag order ... suggest that the administration is playing politics with border security data," declared Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.). "I hope this is not the case."