This past Friday, White House and senior administration officials – including representatives from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Department of Education, and HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement -  met with African community leaders to discuss immigration issues specific to the African immigrant and refugee population. The convening brought together leaders and advocates representing communities from the countries of Mauritania, Somalia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Guinea Bissau.

Cecilia Munoz, Director of White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, opened the forum and highlighted the challenges in fixing the legal immigration system and reassured the community leaders in the room of the President’s continued commitment to a legislative solution to fixing the broken immigration system.  Bakary Tandia, Coordinator of African Services Committee and long time advocate for African immigrant communities shared a touching story of a wheelchair bound activist who came to Washington, DC two years ago for a major immigration reform mobilization even though he couldn’t walk he wanted to lend his voice to the debate.  He asked “What can we do concretely as community leaders to contribute and galvanize support?” In response, Stephanie Valencia, Deputy Director of the Office of Public Engagement, encouraged everyone in the room to help broaden the dialogue and elevate the debate by hosting immigration action roundtables in their own communities check out the roundtable toolkit to sponsor your own immigration roundtable. 

The administration recently announced a series of new policies and outreach efforts that will help drive the nation’s economy by making it easier for high-skill immigrants to start businesses and create American jobs. With the help of streamlining and clarification of current immigration policies, America can continue to out-innovate and out-compete the world in a global economy.

As part of our White House Asks series, we asked our Twitter followers and Facebook fans, “What do these new policies enabling immigrant entrepreneurship mean to you?” We wanted to take some time to respond to some of the thoughtful and interesting feedback that we received:

This morning, President Obama will visit Cannon Falls, Minnesota to kick off his economic bus tour.  The President is traveling around the Midwest to stress the vital role rural America plays in ensuring the growth of our economy, the affordability of our food, the independence of our energy supply, and the strength of our communities. Cannon Falls, Minnesota, 35 miles south of Minneapolis and St. Paul, is the first stop in a three day tour across America’s heartland. President Obama will take questions from small business owners, rural organizations and local families during a town hall beginning at 1:05 pm EDT at Lower Hannah's Bend Park. Tune in to the town hall live at WhiteHouse.gov/live.

A quick look back at what happened this week on WhiteHouse.gov

Common Sense Solutions: On Monday, August 8th, President Obama addressed our nation’s credit downgrade and said that our nation's problems are "eminently solvable." He laid out steps Congress can take right now to jumpstart the economy. "Specifically, we should extend the payroll tax cut as soon as possible, so that workers have more money in their paychecks next year and businesses have more customers next year," said the President. Watch the remarks.

Crisis in Africa: Right now, thousands of families are starving as a result of a famine caused by the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in 60 years. This week, Dr. Jill Biden led a delegation including former Senator Bill Frist and USAID Director Rajiv Shah to the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya where they witnessed the suffering first hand. If you are as touched by their plight as Dr. Biden and her team, there are many ways you can help,

New Fuel Rules: On Tuesday, President Obama announced historic new fuel efficiency standards for work trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles. These new standards will save American businesses approximately $50 billion over the life of the program, while reducing oil consumption by a projected 530 million barrels and greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by approximately 270 million metric tons. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood calls the new standards a “significant win.” On Thursday, the President travelled to Holland, MI where he visited an advanced battery plant making the batteries that will be needed to power these vehicles of the future and talked about his goal to see more products that are made in America sold around the world.

Celebrating Ramadan: The ninth month of the Islamic calendar marks Ramadan, a holy month of prayer and fasting for Muslims around the world. On Thursday night, the President marked this occasion at an Iftar dinner with Muslim-American members of Congress and diplomatic corps, as well as Muslim-American families. According to the CIA World Fact Book, there are approximately 1.8 million Muslims in the United States. Watch President Obama's speech.

Bright Ideas: Thomas Edison would be amazed. The conventional light bulb now has some serious competition. Philips Lighting North America has invented a revolutionary 10-watt light emitting diode (LED) bulb. Phillips is the first winner of the Energy Department's Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize(L Prize). The L Prize challenged the lighting industry to develop high performance, energy-saving replacements for conventional light bulbs that will save American consumers and businesses money.

Special Education: On Friday, the Department of Education announced more than $5 million in grants to 19 Parent Training and Information (PTI) Centers in 13 states and Puerto Rico. These centers will help parents understand their child's disability early on and offer information on special education services and opportunities. For the full list of Education Department-funded special education parent information and training centers, visit www.parentcenternetwork.org

Today, the White House Rural Council released a new report titled Jobs and Economic Security for Rural America (pdf).  This is a product of what we have been working on since President Obama signed an Executive Order establishing the first White House Rural Council on June 9.  

I hope that you’ll take a few minutes to read the report because it gives a really good picture of the economic landscape in rural America today. It also shows the commitment and key investments the Obama Administration has already made in rural communities.

The Jobs and Economic Security for Rural America (pdf) report, focuses on 5 critical areas:

1. Creating jobs and promoting economic growth
2. Improving access to quality health care and education
3. Fostering innovation
4. Expanding outdoor opportunities
5. Supporting veterans and military families

This week, Dr. Jill Biden visited Kenya with Senator Bill Frist, USAID Administrator Raj Shah, Assistant Secretary of State Eric Schwartz, and Special Assistant to the President Gayle Smith to bring attention to the humanitarian crisis as thousands of Somalis flee famine and seek refuge in Kenya and Ethiopia. Courtney O’Donnell, Communications Director to Dr. Jill Biden, also traveled with Dr. Biden and visited the world's largest refugee camp. The camp was originally built for 90,000 people, but now has more than 420,000 Somalis who have traveled there seeking aid. Upon her return, Courtney shared her experience with More.com:

In the weeks prior to our trip, Dr. Biden had seen the news reports and the images from the region and wanted to find a way to help. So the goal of our trip was a simple one - to try to bring attention to this famine and the need for aid, and to tell the stories of the people we met. As Communications Director, my role is to find ways to make more people aware of this need and get the message across to as many people as possible.

While our government and others around the world have acted to support the region, there is an urgent need for individuals to act. The pace of the famine is relentless, and without additional assistance, hundreds of thousands of children could die of starvation and disease in the coming months.

Already more than 29,000 children under the age of five have died in the past three months in the region. In an interview with More.com, Courtney reflected on how the trip impacted her as a mother:

President Obama today urged Americans to use the current Congressional break as an opportunity to talk to their Representatives and tell them to take the necessary steps to grow our economy.

He was visiting an advanced battery manufacturing plant  in Holland, MI to highlight the key role that innovative technologies will play in the future of the U.S. auto industry.  He sympathized with the frustration Americans are feeling over the inaction in Washington, and acknowledged that partisan politics are getting in the way of our nation’s ability to create jobs and erase the legacy of debt that is hanging over the economy. “There is nothing wrong with our country,” he told the audience of auto workers.  “There’s something wrong with our politics that we need to fix.”

The President outlined a series of things that can be done right now  to put more money in the pockets of American workers, and said that the best way to make sure they happen is to let Congress know “you’ve had enough of theatrics.” Among the steps Congress can take as soon as they return to Washington:

• Extend the payroll tax cut so that middle class families have more money in their paychecks next year.  If you've got more money in your paycheck, you're more likely to spend it, and that means businesses of all sizes will have more customers.  They'll be in a better position to hire.
• Extend unemployment benefits so that millions of workers who are still pounding the pavement looking for jobs can support their families.
• Pass a bipartisan road construction bill. There are over a million construction workers out of work after the housing boom went bust, just as a lot of America needs rebuilding.  We can put these workers back to work by rebuilding our roads and bridges and railways. 
• Pass the patent reform bill to help our innovators and entrepreneurs get their job-creating ideas to market faster. 
• Pass the trade agreements that will help businesses sell more American-made goods and services to Asia and South America, supporting tens of thousands of jobs here at home.
• We’ve got hundreds of thousands of bright, talented, skilled Americans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and the President recently proposed several initiatives to make sure our veterans are able to navigate this difficult labor market and succeed in the civilian workforce.  He proposed the Returning Heroes and Wounded Warrior Tax Credits, challenged the private sector to train or hire 100,000 Unemployed Veterans, and proposed programs to ensure the men and women in uniform are career ready and transition back to the private sector.

A fundamental part of President Obama’s strategy to energize our economy is making smart investments in research and technology to create jobs for American workers. Today, the President will be visiting the Johnson Controls advanced battery manufacturing plant in Holland, MI to highlight the key role that innovative technologies will play in the future of the U.S. auto manufacturing industry, helping automakers achieve historic fuel efficiency standards, spurring economic growth, and creating high-quality domestic jobs in cutting edge industries across America.

Today’s trip builds on the President’s recent announcement of historic fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks which will bring fuel efficiency to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 and which, combined with steps already taken by this administration, will save American families $1.7 trillion at the pump and reduce oil consumption by 12 billion barrels by 2025.  It also builds on this week’s announcement of first-of-their-kind fuel-efficiency standards for work trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles, which will save American businesses who operate and own these commercial vehicles approximately $50 billion in fuel costs over the life of the program. These new standards will also protect public health by cutting air pollutants such as air toxics, smog, and soot.  New cars and light duty trucks built with the recently announced standards for Model Year 2017 through Model Year 2025 will reduce carbon dioxide pollution by over 6 billion metric tons – equivalent to the emissions from the United States last year, or what the Amazon rainforest absorbs in three years.

Because the Administration was able to create a single, national program that runs through 2025, companies like Johnson Controls have the certainty they need that investments in new, game-changing technologies will pay off, enabling them to create good-paying jobs across the United States – a fact that was highlighted in a report released this week by the United Auto Workers, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the National Wildlife Federation. The report lists the top 15 states employing the highest number of autoworkers in clean, efficient technologies:  Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Texas, Alabama, California, South Carolina, Tennessee, New York, Illinois, Virginia, and Arizona.

Dr. Jill Biden and the US officials who joined her on a trip to a refugee center in Kenya want the American people to understand how severe the crisis caused by a combination of drought, famine and war has become, especially on the most vulnerable population, the children of Somalia.

“It touched my heart,” said Dr. Biden about reading the news and seeing the footage of the spreading humanitarian crisis, “as a mother, I watched these children … saw them starving and thought, we have to do something.” Earlier this week, she traveled to the Dadaab refugee complex in Eastern Kenya, where approximately 420,000 people who have fled war-torn Somalia in search of food, water and shelter, are currently living in a tented city originally built to accommodate 90,000.

Former U.S. Senator Bill Frist, another member of the delegation, says more must be done to help famine victims. "A lot of people don't realize, especially in this environment of what's happening in terms of the economy here and at home, that this is the most acute food security emergency anywhere in the world now and in recent years," he said.