Mexico has warned its citizens about travelling to Arizona in response to a tough new anti-immigration law that has provoked fury in Mexico and across the Americas.
The law, signed by the southern US state's Republican Governor Jan Brewer on Friday, allows police to question and detain anyone they believe may be an illegal immigrant, even if they are not suspected of committing another crime.
The head of Mexican airline Aeromexico has warned the law could cause it to drop more flights to Arizona after it already lost business due to tough immigration policies there.
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Mexico's foreign ministry advised nationals to carry identity documents and respect Arizona law, warning of "an adverse political atmosphere for migrant communities and for all Mexican visitors".
"It should be assumed that any Mexican citizen could be bothered and questioned for no significant reason at any moment," the ministry said, adding that the law would not be applied for several months.
President Felipe Calderon has slammed the law as "racial discrimination" and said his government would "use all means at its disposal" to defend its nationals.
Law 'threat to friendship, business'
He said the law threatened links of friendship, business, tourism and culture between Mexico and Arizona.
Mexican opposition parties and migrants have called for a commercial boycott of the southern US state, as businesses fear negative repercussions in the wake of the nation's worst recession in decades.
"Without a doubt it will affect the traffic of travellers between Mexico and that state (Arizona)," Aeromexico CEO Andres Conesa told journalists at a tourism conference in Acapulco on Tuesday.
Aeromexico had already closed routes between the Mexican cities of Mexico City and Guadalajara and Phoenix in Arizona in recent months, he said.
"We've lowered the number of flights there significantly due to the way our compatriots are treated," Conesa said.
In Sonora, the Mexican state bordering Arizona, the government symbolically cancelled an annual meeting with Arizona officials, according to its website, but it said that it would seek to maintain good relations.
Legal and political row over law
North of the border, the legislation has provoked a wave of criticism, including from US President Barack Obama, and ignited a legal and political row as Democrats consider launching a comprehensive immigration reform bid.
US Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said on Tuesday that US justice officials have "deep concerns" about the law and that the Justice Department was reviewing whether it met "constitutional safeguards."
Mexico, which shares a 3,200-kilometer border with the United States, is believed to have some 12 million nationals in the United States, with half of them undocumented or illegal.
Arizona estimates it has some 460,000 illegal immigrants, mostly from Latin American countries.
The Central American nations of Honduras and Guatemala - both with large numbers of nationals in the United States - have also slammed the Arizona law.
