We demand better treatment for citizens!

AP: Senate Panel Approves Immigration Bill---

WASHINGTON - The Senate Judiciary Committee approved sweeping election-year legislation Monday that clears the way for 11 million illegal aliens to seek U.S. citizenship, a victory for demonstrators who had spilled into the streets by the hundreds of thousands demanding better treatment for immigrants.

I want better treatment for citizens!

With a bipartisan coalition in control, the committee also voted down proposed criminal penalties on immigrants found to be in the country illegally. It approved a new temporary program allowing entry for 1.5 million workers seeking jobs in the agriculture industry.

"All Americans wanted fairness and they got it this evening," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who played a pivotal role in drafting the legislation.

There is nothing fair about this. We AMERICANS work hard, follow the laws, live our lives. These people invade our country by stealing across the borders, and the US Senate, made up of people elected by us (but who obviously don't listen to us), is rewarding them for it. Nothing fair here.

The 12-6 vote broke down along unusual lines, with a majority of the panel's Republicans opposed to the measure even though their party controls the Senate.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., seeking re-election this fall in his border state, said the bill offered amnesty to illegal immigrants, and sought unsuccessfully to insert tougher provisions. He told fellow committee members that the economy would turn sour some day and Americans workers would want the jobs that now go to illegal immigrants. They will ask, "how could you have let this happen," he added.

How, indeed?

Committee chairman Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania was one of four Republicans to support the bill, but he signaled strongly that some of the more controversial provisions could well be changed when the measure reaches the Senate floor. That is "very frequently" the case when efforts to reach a broad bipartisan compromise falter, he noted.

R.I.N.O. talking. Disregard everything he says.

In general, the bill is designed to strengthen enforcement of U.S. borders, regulate the flow into the country of so-called guest workers and determine the legal future of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.

The bill would double the Border Patrol and authorizes a "virtual wall" of unmanned vehicles, cameras and sensors to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border.

It also allows more visas for nurses and agriculture workers, and shelters humanitarian organizations from prosecution if they provide non-emergency assistance to illegal residents.

Immunity for humanitarian organizations for providing "non-emergency assistance"??? What? Why? That's ridiculous. No one ought to be immune from prosecution if one aids and abets a criminal. Especially the federal government.

And notice the use of the term "illegal residents." That's a new one.

The most controversial provision would permit illegal aliens currently in the country to apply for citizenship without first having to return home, a process that would take at least six years or more. They would have to pay a fine, learn English, study American civics, demonstrate they had paid their taxes and take their place behind other applicants for citizenship, according to aides to Kennedy.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no! A thousand times NO! If the government can't keep them from coming in here, how does it plan to make sure they all pay their fines, learn English, study American civics, etc.?

This is rewarding immoral and criminal behavior.

Michelle Malkin notes that Teddy Kennedy is Very Happy.

Act NOW: send FREE FAXES to your Senators. It is super easy to do. Do it and let us know in the comments sections.

Also, via Michelle's post, NumbersUSA has comparisons of the various bills, the free faxes, the numbers, and more.