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Cautious AP executives did not frame it exactly that way. Instead, editor Kathleen Carroll portrayed the decision as one in defense of grammar, saying that the term "illegal" properly "describe(s) only an action" and that it is not an appropriate label to describe a human being.

"Illegal," of course, has been used as more than a mere label -- it has for years been used as an outright epithet by xenophobes. They abhor the notion of America becoming more diverse -- and specifically, more non-white -- and so they have tried to convert "illegal" into a word that specifically dehumanizes Latinos. Thus, as any honest person can admit, when Republican politicians and media blowhards decry "illegals," they are pretending to be for a race-blind enforcement of immigration laws, but they are really signaling their hatred of Latino culture.

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Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano responded to the revelations Tuesday and said that detention policies would be reviewed. Napolitano also expressed some skepticism about the Times' report. Via HuffPo:

"I was not wild about the story," she said at an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. "But I think solitary confinement should be the exception, not the rule. ... So I've asked ICE to go back and give me information on the specific cases that were referenced, when those occurred, [whether] the 'facts' -- 'facts,' I say that in quotes -- that were reported were accurate, and then looking at all of our policies with respect to solitary."

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"It is absolutely vital to the integrity of our immigration system that actions have consequences -- in this case, that those who violated the law can remain but cannot obtain the cherished fruits of citizenship," Bush and lawyer Clint Bolick argue in a new book, "Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution." The former governor repeated this line on the "Today" show Monday, noting, "Our proposal is a proposal that looks forward. And if we want to create an immigration policy that's going to work, we can't continue to make illegal immigration an easier path than legal immigration."

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DEFENSE

One of the Navy's premier warships, the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, sits pier-side in Norfolk, Va., its deployment to the Persian Gulf delayed. The carrier and its 5,000-person crew were to leave Feb. 8, along with the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg. The Navy also began plans to gradually shut down four of its air wings - which include 50 to 60 aircraft each and are assigned to the carriers - and delay and cancel the deployments of several other ships.

Furlough notices will begin going out later this month to about 800,000 defense department civilians, who will lose a day's pay each week for more than five months. The Army will let go more than 3,000 temporary and contract employees and beginning in April, it will cancel maintenance at depots which will force 5,000 more layoffs. The Air Force Thunderbirds and the Navy's Blue Angels will cancel air show appearances.

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials plan to release up to 10,000 detainees -- all held for nonviolent offenses related to immigration violation.  The detainees are being freed on supervised release while their cases continue in court, officials said.

The announcement provoked angry backlash from Republicans and conservative commentators. According to the Times, Rep. Robert Goodlatte (R-Va) said, "It’s abhorrent that President Obama is releasing criminals into our communities to promote his political agenda on sequestration.” Meanwhile Arizona's Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu told Fox News the move was "politically motivated -- and dangerous."

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Gillian Christensen, an ICE spokeswoman, said ICE has reviewed "several hundred cases" of immigrants being held in jails around the country and released them in the last week. They have been "placed on an appropriate, more cost-effective form of supervised release," she said.

Christensen said the agency's "priority for detention remains on serious criminal offenders and other individuals who pose a significant threat to public safety." She did not say how released immigrants were selected or what jails they were released from.

Tuesday's announcement of jail releases is the first tangible impact of the looming budget cuts for DHS.

The Obama administration has been issuing dire warnings about the impact of the sequestration and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters at the White House Monday that across-the-board cuts would impact the department's core operations, including border security and airport screening operations.

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White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said Sunday that President Barack Obama wants to "be prepared" in case the small bipartisan group of senators fails to devise a plan for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. In response, lawmakers assured the White House they are working on their own plan - and warned that Obama would be heading toward failure if the White House gets ahead of them.

"We will be prepared with our own plan if these ongoing talks between Republicans and Democrats up on Capitol Hill break down," McDonough said, adding he's optimistic they would not crumble.

But he was equally realistic about the fierce partisanship on Capitol Hill.

"Well, let's make sure that it doesn't have to be proposed," McDonough said of the president's pitch, first reported on USA Today's website late Saturday.

Even so, the administration is moving forward on its own immigration agenda should one of Obama's top priorities get derailed.

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"We believe this will be the year Congress finally gets it done," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said, adding: "For the first time ever, there is more political risk in opposing immigration reform than in supporting it. We believe we have a window of opportunity to act, but we will only succeed if the effort is bipartisan."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who occasionally flip-flopped on his support for immigration reform, referred to the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the country as "a de-facto amnesty."

"We have been too content for too long to allow individuals to mow our lawn, serve us food, clean our homes and even watch our children while not affording them any of the benefits that make our country so great," he said.

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From the proposal, there are four basic pillars of the plan:

•  Create a tough but fair path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants currently living in the United States that is contingent upon securing our borders and tracking whether legal immigrants have left the country when required;
• Reform our legal immigration system to better recognize the importance of characteristics that will help build the American economy and strengthen American families;
• Create an effective employment verification system that will prevent identity theft and end the hiring of future unauthorized workers; and
• Establish an improved process for admitting future workers to serve our nation's workforce needs, while simultaneously protecting all workers. 

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A new study in the Journal of Public Administration Research looks at possible factors contributing to why some city police departments are particularly stringent on enforcing immigration law. "Many assume that in places where the political climate runs against unauthorized immigrants — and where longer-standing community members perceive the 'threat' of encroachment by new arrivals — there is automatically a backlash, manifest through law enforcement crackdowns. But research suggests these dynamics are often complex," noted the report from Arizona State University and John Jay College-CUNY.

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Immigrant rights activists, having protested and fought the legislation in court for two years, have now geared up to deal with its impact on the ground.

A bilingual hotline, hosted by ACLU of Arizona and established by immigrant rights activist Lydia Guzman to advise on issues around SB 1070, has already been inundated with calls from concerned parties.

ACLU of Arizona executive director Alessandra Soler told Salon Friday that she expects in the next couple of weeks that calls will come in reporting stops and detentions by police. As of now, the hotline, which launched in June, has received more than 3,500 calls from people seeking advice on preemptive action.

"People are asking very smart questions," she said, "such as whether a passenger in a car needs to carry identification." But there is concern that police officers might stop a car for a driving violation and conduct immigration checks on all passengers.

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"Jorge, as you remind me, my biggest failure so far is we haven't gotten comprehensive immigration reform done yet," Obama said, adding: "What I confess I did not expect, and so I'm happy to take responsibility for being naive here, is that Republicans who had previously supported comprehensive immigration reform -- my opponent in 2008, who had been a champion of it and who attended these meetings -- suddenly would walk away. That's what I did not anticipate."

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Elise Foley from the Huffington Post flags that Romney, who has been aggressively courting the Hispanic vote, said in the May fundraiser: "Gosh, I'd love to bring in more legal immigrants that have skill, and knowledge, I'd like to staple a green card to every Ph.D. in the world and say, 'Come to America, we want you here.' Instead, we make it hard for people who get educated here or elsewhere to make this their home."

"Unless, of course, you have no skill or experience," Romney added, " in which case you're welcome to cross the border and stay here for the rest of your life. It's very strange."

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As Reuters reported, the American Civil Liberties Union has set up a hotline where individuals questioned or detained under the law can call in. "[We'll] be looking very carefully to monitor for civil rights violations in the state," Karen Tumlin, managing attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, one of a coalition of groups that challenged the law, told Reuters.

Around 50 activists demonstrated outside ICE agency offices in Phoenix late Wednesday to protest the law going into effect. Undocumented activists are working to spread information and advice to fellow immigrants who are in the country illegally; some groups are advising undocumented individuals to leave any papers detailing their country of birth at home, and to give only their name and birthday to police if stopped.

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Farmers Branch was sued four years ago after it passed an ordinance allowing the city building inspector to evict any illegal immigrant renters. Its case will now go before the full membership of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, comprised of 10 active judges appointed by Republican presidents and just five by Democrats.

So far, no court has allowed Farmers Branch to enforce any form of the ordinance. But the appeals court's rare move to hear the case a second time, months after a different three-judge panel ruled against Farmers Branch, could be a sign that the town might finally get a victory.

The current ordinance, which replaced an earlier 2006 version, would require all renters to obtain a $5 city license and fill out an application that asks about their legal status. Then, the city's building inspector would have to check whether any immigrant applying for a license was in the United States legally. Illegal immigrants would be denied a permit, and landlords who knowingly allow illegal immigrants to stay as tenants could be fined or have their renters' license barred.

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