Following his address to the nation last night, President Obama traveled to Las Vegas today to detail the new steps he's taking to start fixing America's broken immigration system.
Friday, 21 November 2014
Weekly Wrap Up: This Week at the White House
The Weekly Wrap Up
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It's been a busy week here at the White House. In case you've missed some of our top stories this week, here's a recap.
Photo of the Week:
Sharing a koalaty moment in Australia. http://bit.ly/1r6jGgY #G20 http://bit.ly/1p6TjvK
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 15, 2014
Chart of the Week: Our Border Is More Secure than It Has Been in Decades
In an address to the nation last night, President Obama announced new steps he’s taking to fix our broken immigration system and ensure nearly 5 million people will be held accountable and have the opportunity to play by the rules.
Using his executive authority, the President is making it easier for high-skilled immigrants and entrepreneurs to stay and contribute to the economy, as well as allowing certain undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for more than five years to get right by the law.
Alongside those steps, the President is also continuing to strengthen our border security. In fact, the Obama administration’s investment in border technology, manpower, and resources represents the most serious and sustained action to secure our border in our nation’s history.
Today, there are more than 18,000 border patrol agents at our southwest border alone, the miles of fencing and barriers have more than doubled, unmanned aircraft systems have more than doubled, and ground surveillance has almost doubled -- making our border more secure than it has been in decades.
As a result of the President’s focus on security over the past six years, illegal border crossings have been cut by more than half. Check out this chart to see how the number of people trying to cross our border illegally is at its lowest level since the 1970s:
What They're Saying About the President's New Action on Immigration
Last night, President Obama addressed the nation and laid out the steps he'll be taking -- within his executive authority as President -- to start fixing America's broken immigration system:
- Building on our progress at the border with additional resources for our law enforcement personnel.
- Making it easier and faster for high-skilled immigrants, graduates, and entrepreneurs to stay and contribute to our economy, as many business leaders have proposed.
- Dealing responsibly with the millions of undocumented immigrants who already live in our country.
"I continue to believe that the best way to solve this problem is by working together to pass that kind of common-sense law," the President said. He noted, however, that House Republicans continue to block a bipartisan immigration bill that the Senate passed a year and a half ago.
"To those Members of Congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better, or question the wisdom of me acting where Congress has failed," he said, "I have one answer: Pass a bill."
Read more about the President's action at http://1.usa.gov/1uZ1Xgp.
Already, a number of people -- ranging from prominent politicians and members of Congress to media personalities and other organizations -- have voiced their strong support for the President's action. Take a look what they had to say on Twitter:
West Wing Week: 11/21/14 or, "Mingalarbar!"
This week, the President visited Burma for the second time in his presidency, attended the G20 Summit in Australia, worked to expand access to broadband and 21st century technology in our schools, and addressed the nation about the steps he is taking to fix our broken immigration system. That's November 14th to November 20th or, "Mingalarbar!"
5 Things to Watch for This Weekend in the NFL
Last night the Oakland Raiders won their first game of the year against the Kansas City Chiefs. They almost blew it after celebrating a sack late in the fourth quarter like they'd hit a Powerball jackpot, but they won nonetheless. Considering the Chiefs appeared—and probably still appear—to be on their way to the playoffs, this was a sizable upset, only proving that it's impossible to predict where the excitement is going to come from during any given week of the season. But with the playoff picture beginning to take shape and the games meaning more than ever, we thought it'd be a good time to run down the important things to watch for heading into Week 12. Really, though, we're just praying Downtown John Brown is involved.
Joe Robbins/Getty Images
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By on November 21, 2014
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Lebanon's General Security rejects blame for Iranian movie ban
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s General Security Friday denied responsibility for banning the anti-Iranian government movie that was supposed to be screened at a festival, although it underlined that the film’s content harms the Lebanese-Iranian relations.
In a statement released Friday to counter the voices who accused the agency of banning the film “The Silent Majority Speaks,” the security agency said that the Iranian movie was not banned from theater, but was rather referred to the committee specialized in examining controversial films.
“When General Security sees any violation of law in the movie’s content, it refers it to the committee,” a spokesperson for the agency told The Daily Star Friday night.
“The committee’s decision is then forwarded for approval to the Interior Minister, who makes the final decision.”
The official explained that the committee includes representatives of the ministries of information, culture and interior affairs, and that it has not yet issued a decision on whether to allow the movie because one of the committee members abstained from a vote.
Although a final decision will not be announced before the last member votes, the majority of the committee members agreed to allow the screening of the movie in a future festival “on one occasion only,” the spokesman said.
However, the film was supposed to be screened in a festival that has already ended.
The statement published earlier in the day specified that the movie accused the Iranian political system of being “dictatorial” and described former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a “liar.”
As a result, General Security believed that the “film insults a system and the head of a state that has a relationship of friendship and cooperation with Lebanon, which negatively affects this relationship.”
Directed by Bani Khoshnoudi, the film concentrated on the 2009 presidential elections in Iran when thousands of people took to the streets to protest Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election. The demonstrators who were calling for reforms and demanding a recount clashed with security forces and some of the protests turned violence.
The film was scheduled to be screened Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Metropolis Empire Sofil cinema in Beirut, as part of the Cultural Resistance International Film Festival of Lebanon.
The festival’s head organizer Jocelyne Saab had told The Daily Star that General Security was behind the ban, saying the security agency sent the decision a couple of hours before the screening time.
The agency’s spokesperson and its Friday statement both said that Saab is to be blamed for not securing permission to screen the film earlier.
“Before the administrative procedures were done, the festival’s manager repeatedly called General Security demanding permission to screen the movie, threatening to [launch a media campaign] accusing the General Security of censoring the film,” the statement said.
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