It's now possible that if I pitch up in Arizona later this year and a local police officer is unimpressed by my Australian accent then that cop will have the right to demand I prove my presence in the state is "legal".
Last Friday, Governor Jan Brewer – who took office in January – signed into state law what has been described as the "nation's toughest bill on illegal immigration".
Brewer's controversial bill makes failure to carry immigration documents a crime and gives police power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.
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While some European countries may wonder what the fuss is all about, in the United States, the move is unprecedented.
The bill also makes it illegal to hire day labourers – the guys who renovate homes and work on gardens – or even give illegal immigrants a lift in your car.
President Obama, weighing in on state affairs, described the new law as one "to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe."
Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles went a few steps further than the President, describing the law on his blog as "the country's most retrogressive, mean-spirited, and useless anti-immigrant law."
"I can't imagine Arizonans now reverting to German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques whereby people are required to turn one another in to the authorities on any suspicion of documentation."
One supporter of the law is the former Republican Presidential candidate, Senator John McCain.
McCain has previously been considered progressive when it comes to immigration but, now locked in a battle with a same-party challenger for his Arizona seat on the United States senate, seems to blow with the political wind.
While some police groups supported the bill other law enforcement officials were unsure on how reality might play put on the street.
In the city of Tuscon, originally a Spanish-speaking city, Police Chief Roberto Villasenor said local officers would face some obstacles enforcing the new law, including how to transport illegal immigrants they arrest to keeping trust with people in the community.
"[But] once it's passed, we're obligated to enforce it," he said.
State Representative Russell Pearce, a Republican sponsor of the bill, was unmoved by criticism: "Illegal is illegal. We'll have less crime. We'll have lower taxes. We'll have safer neighborhoods. We'll have shorter lines in the emergency rooms. We'll have smaller classrooms."
Others disagreed.
"It's going to change our lives," said Emilio Almodovar, a 13-year-old American citizen told a Phoenix TV station. "We can't walk to school any more. We can't be in the streets anymore without the pigs thinking we're illegal immigrants."
