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Several advocacy groups warnedcongressional Democrats in a memo Wednesday that if they failed to find a way to createa pathway for citizenshipfor undocumented immigrants, it would result in widespread losses for Democrats.

In a memo obtained by Politico, the groups addressed both chambers Democratic caucuses and campaign committees, saying that citizenship for undocumented immigrants in America can no longer remain an unfulfilled campaign promise for the Democratic Party.

Specifically, the groups directed the congressional Democrats to bring immigration reform as a top priority to President BidenJoe BidenGOP report on COVID-19 origins homes in on lab leak theory READ: The .2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Senators introduce bipartisan infrastructure bill in rare Sunday session MORE and ultimately include provisions to tackle a pathway to citizenship as part of the reconciliation bill.

Socializing and saturating President Biden and Democrats immigration solutions is a first and evergreen step; passing the Senate leaderships budget reconciliation plan that would, once and for all, create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants must be the immediate next step this year, the letter concluded.

The group of organizations includes: Immigration Hub, Peoples Action, Service Employees International Union and Voto Latino.

Axios reported on Wednesday that Biden planned to meet with 11 Democrats at the White House on Thursday to plan next steps in tackling the issue of citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The news comes amid an earlier ruling this month by a federal judge in Texas that blocked new applications to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The ruling has put pressure on Congress to speed up the process in finding a permanent solution for Dreamers. The memo cited the recent ruling and upcoming midterm elections as reason to move quickly, stating there would be political consequences if they failed to act.

Failure to fulfill this basic campaign promise will depress base turnout, particularly among Latinos, leave critical swing votes on the table, and result in widespread losses for Democrats in the upcoming midterms and potentially sacrifice the White House in 2024, the memo warned.

The groups argued that prioritizing citizenship for undocumented immigrants would also reengage Latino voters. The memo stated that the Latino vote in next years midterms and future presidential elections should not be taken for granted. The organizations pointed to few Latino voters turning out for the Democratic Party in areas like South Florida and the Rio Grande Valley over the last few elections.

Democrats have an opportunity to redefine their Party among Latino voters by boldly articulating their position, pushing back against Republicans, and delivering on the unfulfilled promise immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship, the memo said.

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Advocates warn failure to address immigration will result in 'widespread losses for Democrats' | TheHill - The Hill

Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, right, is seen outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington July 21CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn

Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory joined a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol building on 21 July to voice the Catholic Churchs support for comprehensive immigration reform. The conference was sponsored by the American Business Immigration Coalition, that supports immigration reform. The briefing came after a congressional hearing on the plight of migrant farmworkers.

Catholic social teaching upholds the principle that every person has the right to live in his or her own homeland in security and dignity. However, when loss of work forces migration, we must welcome them, protect them and share our abundance with them, the cardinal said. He expressed special concern that current immigration law divides families. We know that strong and united families are the building blocks of our society, Gregory added.

The push for immigration reform comes when several factors raised the issues importance. A federal court declared unconstitutional the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) programme, initiated by President Barack Obama as a safe harbour from deportation for those brought to the U.S. as children.

The plight of farmworkers, who often work under inhumane conditions, was highlighted during the pandemic as they were deemed essential workers. Earlier this year, however, the U.S. Supreme Court barred those seeking to organise farmworkers from accessing the workers on company-owned land without the owners permission. The ruling effectively frustrates most union organising efforts because the farmworkers are housed on company land as well.

Comprehensive immigration reform is broadly popular with the American people but it failed in both 2007, when Republican President George W Bush tried to enact legislation, and in 2013, when Obama did. President Joe Biden sent a comprehensive immigration proposal to Congress on his first day in office.

Cardinal Gregory urged advocates not to give up hope. Standing in solidarity with our migrant brothers and sisters means once again raising the question, will we care for our neighbour? he said. After years of delay, the 117th Congress now has an opportunity to be courageous by addressing immigration in a comprehensive and productive way.

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Gregory says immigration reform is still possible - The Tablet

Dozens of the nations mayors are urging Democratic leaders to include a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants in any economic recovery legislation Congress considers this year.

That includes Democrats forthcoming $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package a potential legislative vehicle for policy reforms protecting undocumented immigrants who helped the country weather the COVID-19 pandemic, advocates argue.

Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti and more than 80 other American mayors signed a letter calling for a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers undocumented immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children as well as holders of Temporary Protected Status, essential immigrant workers and their families. The term Dreamers refers to recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, created during President Barack Obamas tenure, which conveys protection from deportation and permission to legally work in the U.S.

Cognetti joined Oakland, California, Mayor Libby Schaaf and Tucson, Arizona, Mayor Regina Romero on a Monday press call, where they made the case for a pathway to citizenship.

We already needed to deliver pathways to citizenship, as a nation, before the COVID-19 pandemic, but now it is even more clear that we need to do this for our country and for these families and these workers, Cognetti said, arguing two-thirds of undocumented workers served on the front lines of the public health crisis. They put their lives on the line during the pandemic, and to continue to threaten them with deportation after all that theyve done for our country is unconscionable.

The mayors letter to President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, all Democrats, notes an estimated 5 million undocumented immigrants work in construction, agriculture, food service and production, transportation, health care and other essential industries.

As our state and local communities continue to confront a public health and economic catastrophe that has claimed more than 500,000 lives and exacerbated deep racial and economic inequities, it is vital that Congress enact protections for Dreamers, TPS holders, and essential immigrant workers to secure the health of our nation and to lay the foundation for an equitable economic recovery for all communities across the country, the letter reads.

Cognetti described immigrants as a key part of the economy, especially in the face of declining birth rates and amid the current workforce shortage, arguing a pathway to citizenship is right for both the countrys economic future and the immigrant families themselves.

Providing the pathway the mayors are pushing for would boost the nations gross domestic product by $1.5 trillion over the course of a decade, add 400,000 jobs and increase wages for all American workers, argued Sergio Gonzales, executive director of the Immigration Hub, a national organization, and the moderator of Mondays press call. Those figures come from a recent study by the Center for American Progress and the University of California Davis Global Migration Center.

Schaaf, whose husband is a Scranton native and whose in-laws live in the city, argued its inhumane to force children and families to live in fear that they or a loved one could be deported.

The mayors call for immigration reform comes after a federal judge in Texas ruled earlier this month that the DACA program is unlawful and blocked the Biden administration from accepting new applicants. The judges ruling, which the Biden administration vowed to appeal, underscores the need for Congress to act now and provide a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and others, Gonzales said.

The reconciliation process could allow Congressional Democrats to pass legislation absent any Republican support and without the threat of a Senate GOP filibuster. But whether a pathway to citizenship is ultimately included in Democrats final budget reconciliation bill remains to be seen.

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Cognetti, other mayors call for path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, including essential workers - Scranton Times-Tribune

Nine years ago, after immense grassroots pressure, the Obama administration created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), granting temporary protections and work authorization for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants. I remember that Friday afternoon like it was yesterday. My family was sitting down eating while watching TV, anxiously awaiting President Obamas announcement. When it finally came, my heart exploded with happiness, I couldnt contain my excitement finally some relief for my older brother, my younger sister and me. But soon after, we learned we didnt qualify. Despite arriving in this country at age 11, we needed to have arrived before June 2007 to qualify my siblings and I had arrived 13 months too late. My dreams were shattered. Nearly a decade later, immigrants like me, along with the DACA recipients who did qualify for the program, are still waiting on a path to citizenship.

My siblings and I consider Staten Island, New York, our home. We learned English here, have gone to school here, met our dearest friends here, and work to support our family here. At first, learning English was hard, but we knew it was critical for our future. Our homework was very challenging, but in the evenings we would go over to a neighbors house and she would help us translate and understand our assignments. Each night, we would grab a dictionary and practice looking up words and their meanings. We were determined to get good grades and do well in school.

This year, both my younger sister and I graduated from the College of Staten Island, a milestone for our family. But, while I have my diploma and want to pursue my career in accounting, I cannot because of my immigration status. This is the reality hundreds of thousands of youth currently face, after being left out of DACA, and the millions of undocumented people who have long waited for immigration relief that will put them on a pathway to citizenship.

During the pandemic, our immigrant communities were among the most vulnerable suffering the loss of loved ones while continuing to labor at the frontlines as essential workers. Throughout the pandemic, my mother cleaned houses and I did construction work. We were two of the estimated 5n million essential workers who put our lives on the line to support our communities and sustain our economy.

Now, we are at a critical moment. A Texas federal judge has halted the DACA program, placing a stop on new applications. This leaves the DACA programs future in grave jeopardy and puts hundreds of thousands of young peoples lives at risk.

The Biden administration and Congress must meet the moment and step up. They can do so by ensuring not temporary solutions, but a path to citizenship or DACA recipients, DACA-eligible youth, essential workers, farm workers and more. This month, Senate Democrats announced a federal budget proposal that includes a path to citizenship for immigrants. The President and majorities in both houses should support the package and pass it. And if Republicans try to obstruct, as theyve made clear they will, Democrats who control both chambers should use every means possible to pass the legislation.

For decades, immigrants have relentlessly fought for humane immigration reform that will provide undocumented people a pathway to citizenship. DACA recipients cannot continue living through court decision after court decision, and youth like me deserve permanent protections, too.

We cannot wait any longer, inaction by Congress is not acceptable. All of our eyes are on President Biden, Senator Schumer, and the rest of Congress to deliver a pathway to citizenship that will help boost our countrys economy and bring permanent protections to the millions of undocumented immigrants who consider this country our home.

(Pedro Farfan, of Rosebank, is a youth member of Make the Road New York, the largest grassroots community organization in New York offering services and organizing the immigrant community.)

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With DACA halted, Congress must act for immigrants (opinion) - silive.com

Everyone, lets just take a moment.

Stop. Take a deep breath. And lets really try to figure out whats going on.

Last week shook our country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told those of us in COVID-19 hot spots to start wearing masks indoors again, even if we have been vaccinated. That recommendation goes for most of the country.

We hear a new frightening phrase: delta variant. Then we see scary numbers again the number of new COVID-19 cases, people being hospitalized, people dying, breakthrough cases of those testing positive for the coronavirus after having been vaccinated.

Just when you thought we had turned the corner and we all came out of our cocoons ready to return to something close to normalcy, we see these numbers and hear these warnings, and you assume that were going backward.

But these horror stories and numbers are often presented without context, without nuance, without all the facts. The media, perhaps even unintentionally, often isnt telling the full story in the fight against COVID-19, and this is leading to confusion and panic.

On CNNs Reliable Sources, anchor Brian Stelter said, The problem starts with the CDC and its absolute failure to communicate clearly and effectively. Sloppy news coverage makes a bad situation worse.

The coverage has been sloppy. Weve seen news organizations play up the number of new cases. Weve seen news outlets suggest that vaccinated people can transmit the virus as easily as unvaccinated people. We saw several media outlets cover a story in Barnstable County, Massachusetts where Cape Cod is that showed a high percentage of positive COVID-19 cases were people who had been vaccinated.

But again, context is needed.

For example, that county in Massachusetts with the high percentage of breakthrough cases? Not one death among the vaccinated, and less than a handful of hospitalizations. And the reports that vaccinated people transmit the virus as easily as unvaccinated people is misleading because vaccinated people are far less likely to get COVID-19 to begin with.

The New York Times tweeted that an internal CDC report claimed, The Delta variant is as contagious as chickenpox and may be spread by vaccinated people as easily as the unvaccinated. But Ben Wakana of the White House COVID-19 response team retweeted, VACCINATED PEOPLE DO NOT TRANSMIT THE VIRUS AT THE SAME RATE AS UNVACCINATED PEOPLE AND IF YOU FAIL TO INCLUDE THAT CONTEXT YOURE DOING IT WRONG.

(The Times followed up with a more clear tweet.)

The bottom line, based on the numbers, is the vaccines are working. That doesnt mean vaccinated people still cant get COVID-19. No one ever claimed the vaccines made you 100% immune and perhaps health officials and the media should have emphasized that when vaccines were rolled out. But the numbers show that severe illness and hospitalization are extremely rare among the vaccinated.

So what should the media be concerned about when it comes to COVID-19? Stelter suggests it should be hospitalizations and not cases. Then again, hospitalizations alone do not tell the story either because hospitalizations are mostly made up of unvaccinated patients. Again, thats the context that needs to be added to tell the full story.

CNNs Oliver Darcy reports that the Biden administration is reaching out to news organizations to make sure to include context in their reporting about COVID-19.

One Biden official told Darcy, The medias coverage doesnt match the moment. It has been hyperbolic and frankly irresponsible in a way that hardens vaccine hesitancy. The biggest problem we have is unvaccinated people getting and spreading the virus.

Want an example of how its done? Check out this clip from CNNs Jake Tapper, who used facts and numbers to say, Less than .001% of those fully vaccinated have experienced a fatal breakthrough case. Less than .004% of those fully vaccinated had to be hospitalized. In other words, the vaccines work. The vaccines remain the best way to protect yourselves from this virus. Period. Full stop.

That needs to continue to be the overriding theme at this point because thats what the numbers say. Those are the facts. Lets stick to those.

President Joe Biden last Thursday. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Lets not just blame the media for the confusion about COVID-19.

Axios Mike Allen and Caitlin Owens write, The Biden administrations handling of the Delta surge has left Americans confused and frustrated, fueling media overreaction and political manipulation. The past year and a half have left Americans cynical about the governments COVID response, and in many cases misinformed or uninformed. Were getting fog and reversals when steady, clear-eyed, factual information is needed more than ever.

Allen then gets to the heart of the matter by writing, Administration officials are awkwardly dancing around the fact that theyve run out of politically palatable ways to try to convince people to get their shot. Delta is getting out of control, and becoming angry or coercive with the unvaccinated could go badly.

The smartest comments I heard over the weekend about COVID-19 came from Dr. Celine Gounder on Reliable Sources. Gounder, an infectious disease physician, is host of the podcast Epidemic. Asked what we can expect moving forward, Gounder said COVID-19 will be something we vaccinate against along with all the other diseases.

I really do think that we need to steel ourselves for the idea that were not post-pandemic, Gounder said. Ive heard many people in the media say to me over the course of the summer, Oh, COVID is over. Ive even heard some public health officials who are declaring mission accomplished much too soon. This is going to be with us for a long time, really indefinitely and we have to learn to live with it. And vaccines are how we learn to live with it.

Some COVID-19 coverage of note in recent days:

What a chilling headline on this story from The Washington Posts Hannah Knowles: I should have gotten the damn vaccine, woman says fiance texted before he died of COVID-19.

Micheal Freedys fiance said Freedy was not an anti-vaxxer, but wanted to wait a year to see how the vaccine affected those who got it. Freedys fiance, Jessica DuPreez, has given several interviews since Freedy died of COVID-19. Freed left behind five children.

She told CNN, My kids dont have a dad anymore because we hesitated. I would take a bad reaction to the vaccine over having to bury my husband. I would take that any day.

Jane Mayers latest piece for The New Yorker, out just this morning, is an eye-opener and looks at who is funding the election-fraud myth. As The New Yorker describes it, Mayer investigates the network of well-funded conservative groups and dark-money organizations that have drafted, supported, and in some cases taken credit for state laws that make it harder to vote.

Mayer writes, Although the Arizona audit may appear to be the product of local extremists, it has been fed by sophisticated, well-funded national organizations whose boards of directors include some of the countrys wealthiest and highest-profile conservatives.

One such leader is the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. According to Mayer, it has been working with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-funded nonprofit that generates model laws for state legislators on ways to impose new voting restrictions. Mayer reports that the Heritage Foundation plans to spend $24 million over the next two years in an effort to promote what they call election integrity.

Important work on a troubling story by Mayer.

Tampa Bay Bucs quarterback Tom Brady in last seasons Super Bowl. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)

How much would you pay to watch the Super Bowl on TV? You might find out someday. Former ESPN president John Skipper, who is now working with former ESPNer Dan Le Batard at Meadowlark Media, thinks were headed to a day when the Super Bowl will be a pay-per-view event.

During an appearance on Le Batards podcast, Skipper was talking in generalities and brought up the possibility of the Super Bowl being on pay-for-view.

I mean thats how theyre going to replace the money someday, Skipper said. Because theres not gonna be enough money in the advertising.

As Skipper noted, if sports fans are willing to pay money to watch a boxing match, they certainly would pay money to watch Americas premier sporting event. Skipper also said viewers might have the option to pay for a lifetime subscription to the Super Bowl.

Again, Skipper was more spitballing than anything, but this isnt outlandish. We already pay for things we really want to watch movies, TV shows and other sporting events, such as MMA fights and professional wrestling specials. Maybe a Super Bowl PPV wont happen anytime soon, but is anyone willing to bet it will never happen?

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

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The media is making missteps in covering COVID - Poynter