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Editor's note: Jason Furman is the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. The views expressed are his own.

(CNN) -- Immigration reform may be a complicated issue politically, but in economic terms, the case is clear -- it is one of the biggest levers the United States has to encourage economic growth and to raise wages.

It's not just the Obama administration that thinks so.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Monetary Fund recently found that President Barack Obama's growth strategy, which he presented at the recent G-20 meeting in Brisbane, Australia, would add more to our economy than the steps being pursued by any other G7 country. And the single biggest contributor to that strategy? Immigration reform.

True, we can only realize the full benefits of immigration reform with a comprehensive bill passed by Congress. But the administrative steps that the President has announced -- including measures to better attract and retain high-skilled workers from around the world and to hold accountable undocumented immigrants with strong ties to the United States while providing them with temporary relief from deportation -- represent a good start and a meaningful boost to the economy.

As the President is discussing Tuesday at Casa Azafrn community center in Nashville, the main economic benefits of these actions are to raise our productivity -- increasing the amount of output we can produce for a given amount of inputs.

How do the actions announced by the President make that happen? Allowing more foreign-born entrepreneurs to come to our country -- to create jobs and to innovate -- is one common sense step to help grow the American economy. Another is enhancing the ability of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) graduates from U.S. universities to further their on-the-job training for longer periods, something that will boost the overall skill level of the American workforce.

Less widely appreciated, but also economically important, is the contribution that offering over 4 million workers a path out of the shadows will make to our economy. And this comes as no surprise to this country's businesses. Indeed, one of the main economic arguments for this step is one that they have been making for years about their own investment -- the importance of certainty.

When faced with high levels of uncertainty, firms often hold off on making important investments for future growth. This is also true for the millions of undocumented immigrants living here in the United States. They participate in the workforce at higher rates than native-born Americans, and many are long-time members of their communities. Yet because of the uncertainty they face about their future, they are less likely to make important investments in themselves or in the communities in which they live, such as investing in their education, learning new job skills, purchasing homes or starting new businesses. And, as with firms, these decisions -- rooted in uncertainty -- can depress overall growth.

See the rest here:
Immigration: The truth about economic impact (Opinion ...

Written by: Sowmya Ramanan

Updated: Thursday, December 11, 2014, 11:36 [IST]

I am still waiting for a Green Card (GC)! Havent we all heard this statement over and over again? It summarises the situation for over half-a-million legal immigrants in the land of opportunities, the United States of America. Some are in a different stage in the legal immigration process, but most are in the state where the GC still feels like a very distant dream.

President raised hopes for the immigrants in USA

So when reports started trickling in about the president forcing executive action to fix the immigration system, the waiting game started on what could possibly be included in this for the high-skilled workers.

President Barack Obama turns around as he is interrupted by a woman on stage during his remarks at the Copernicus Community Center in Chicago to discuss immigration reform, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014. Obama visited his hometown to promote his executive action on immigration. PTI

These workers are those who came to this country as aspiring students leaving their families behind and stayed on to pursue the American dream or those workers and their families who landed here to pursue a fruitful career putting all at stake on the home front for a better life.

America is known to be a land that gives more than it takes and its all true for everything except immigration. My husband and I were part of this "waiting" community of legal immigrants who came to the US to pursue academic careers and stayed on.

Every immigrant in USA wants a stress-free life and hence waited eagerly for President Obama's announcement

Every immigrant here who had not yet been legalised through employment-based immigration was waiting to hear some positive news via executive action on immigration reform, which could make his or her life more stress free and predictable.

See more here:
US immigration reform: From red to amber?

The Westboro Baptist Church and First Amendment
UNL Journalism 189H project. *Correction: the gentleman at 7:50 actually said "That wouldn #39;t surprise me." Thank you to all of our gracious participants!

By: Zo Hatfield

Here is the original post:
The Westboro Baptist Church and First Amendment - Video

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -

A new eavesdropping bill is generating some First Amendment concerns before it even becomes law.

The law will replace the previous one, which was declared unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court. However, some nebulous language is causing concerns among some groups who fear it could have a chilling effect on people videotaping the police.

The law makes it illegal to record any conversation unless everybody in the conversation consents or no one in the conversation has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Well, what does it mean to have a reasonable expectation of privacy? This law doesn't tell you how to know that, said Jacob Huebert, Sr. Attorney with the Liberty Justice Center.

But the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois said those concerns are misguided.

When you see a police officer having an interaction in public, and you can hear what they're saying, you can record it, said Ed Yohnka, Communications Director with the ACLU of Illinois

Yohnka said people who have been marching in the streets of Chicago to vent their frustrations over the Eric Garner death in New York City should not have to worry about recording their interactions with police, or any other public interaction with law enforcement, as long as it's in a public place.

That right was established by the decision issued by the Illinois Supreme Court back in the spring when it ruled the old eavesdropping law was unconstitutional, according to the ACLU.

Yohnka said the new law would put the onus on police officers to take steps to have any private conversations in places where they could clearly expect privacy. He added prosecutors and police need to make it clear to their officers that people do have the right to record them doing their job in public.

They have a right, under the First Amendment, to gather that kind of information, you know to try to redress wrongs, to try to correct a situation, to make a complaint about the actions of a particular public official, Yohnka said.

Continued here:
Illinois eavesdropping legislation focuses on 'private' dialogue

Nov. 25, 2014 front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. (Newseum)

Something more than fires and rage has been sparked in the streets of Ferguson. There is a growing awakening and reawakening of hundreds and thousands of protesters to their First Amendment rights to peaceably assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

I saw it firsthand as I talked to men and women, young and old, black and white, before and after a grand jury decided not to indict former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Before this sleepy suburb in my hometown of St. Louis morphed into an international flashpoint for race relations and police tactics in America, for many of the protesters the 45 words in the First Amendment had as much interest or meaning as the Yellow Pages. Now, the First Amendment, like Ferguson, is a rallying cry, a hashtag, ammunition they can use to protect themselves from any government authority that tries to quell their voices.

Voices like Thomas Bradley. The 24-year-old barber works on the stretch of West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson that suffered the most damage. A week before Brown was killed, Bradley said he was physically and verbally harassed by a Ferguson policeman. In the aftermath of Browns death and the grand jurys exoneration of Wilson, Bradley has taken a place beside other young demonstrators on the citys streets.

I didnt know anything at all about the First Amendment, at least not as much as I should have, he said. Now I do. This is not just about Mike Brown but everybody who has ever been abused by the police department.

Voices like 63-year-old Beverly Adams of University City, Mo., who knew about her constitutional rights but hadnt exercised them in years.

I was enraged when [Browns body] was left out in the street for four and a half hours, she said. I started marching on Canfield, the street where Brown died. Thats where I always go, by myself. I think when all is said and done, there will be a special law in his name against police brutality.

Voices like Ericka Hughes, 42, a business owner in Jennings, Mo., who made some of the T-shirts worn in the Ferguson protests. She took to the streets within the first few days of Browns shooting.

This is not the first time I have marched for a cause, she said. Browns death hit so close to home in so many ways. I have nephews and cousins and stepsons. This affects everybody.

The rest is here:
#Ferguson, #FirstAmendment