Documents obtained by Judicial Watch using the FOIA reveal the extent to which Bush's immigration plan resulted in a spike of illegal immigration, and administration attempts to cover up that fact.

The details are in Bush "Temporary Worker Proposal" Caused Increase in Illegal Immigrant Crossings, New Docs Show.

The first document is entitled "U.S. Border Patrol Survey Analysis". On January 7, 2004 (after Bush announced his plan), the BP started asking detained illegal crossers why they came. Approximately 45% said it was because of Bush's plan, which was widely perceived as an amnesty. The survey only lasted three weeks before the administration cancelled it.

That's where the other document Judicial Watch obtained comes into play. Entitled "White House Approved Talking Points", it includes the following:

Do not talk about amnesty, increase in apprehensions, or give comparisons of past immigration reform proposals... Do not provide statistics on apprehension spikes or past amnesty data...

Note that president Bush continued to promote his immigration plan long after the survey had found this spike in crossings, including during the presidential debates and on Bill O'Reilly's television show.

UPDATE:From the Dallas Morning News and Knight-Ridder comes Administration accused of withholding information on immigration. An administration spokeswoman says there was no attempt to cover up, the memo was just to avoid clouding their survey results. She says that the White House didn't initiate or halt the survey, that Judicial Watch's conclusions are based on incomplete data, and that the illegal immigration spike began before Bush's speech.