CNN) -- Alabama's governor has signed what he billed as tough illegal immigration legislation, requiring police to check the status of anyone they suspect may be in the country illegally when stopped for another reason.
The bill, due to come into effect on September 1, was signed into law by Republican Gov. Robert Bentley on Thursday.
Its passage makes Alabama the latest in a series of states, including Georgia and Arizona, to weigh controversial new laws aimed at tackling illegal immigration.
Civil rights groups and the Mexican government have been quick to condemn the move.
According to a factsheet presented by Alabama House Republicans, the bill will require law enforcement officers "to attempt to determine the immigration status of a person who they suspect is an unauthorized alien of this country".
The legislation also makes it a criminal offense to provide transport or housing to an illegal immigrant. The state will have to check the citizenship of students and any business that knowingly employs an illegal immigrant will also be penalized.
A spokesman for Bentley told CNN that the governor had signed "a tough illegal immigration law".
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group, criticized the move, saying Alabama had fallen "into a costly trap" by passing what it described as an "unconstitutional law."
The legislation, sponsored by Republican Rep. Micky Hammon, could cost state taxpayers millions of dollars to enforce and defend through the courts, the SPLC said in a statement.
It also warned the state stood to lose "millions more in lost tax revenue from Alabama businesses that will bear the brunt of boycotts of Alabama goods and services and lost sales to documented and undocumented immigrants who flee the state rather than deal with racial profiling and the state's anti-immigrant climate."
The Mexican government warned that the law could affect the human and civil rights of Mexicans living in or visiting the state.
Several immigrant and civil rights organizations filed a class-action lawsuit last week against a new Georgia law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration.
That law allows police to ask about immigration status when questioning suspects in certain criminal investigations.
Meanwhile, Arizona's governor said last month she would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after portions of the state's new immigration law were blocked by federal courts.
The Arizona bill catapulted the issue onto the national stage last year, drawing a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice, which argues that the law is unconstitutional.
Lawmakers in at least 20 states weighed similar proposals during the past year, according to the National Immigration Forum.
Thank god for Alabama. They are following Arizona's lead and taking a stand against the waves of immigrants that are invading this country. Since I was 10 I spent every sumer picking rock and walking beans for local farmers. This is the first summer in 8 years that I haven't been able to do this. Last winter the local trailer park got pretty much taken over by illegals, now I can't get a job. I've tried working other jobs in the winter, but I go nuts flipping burgers or waiting tables or working a cash register. The local job market is shit because the Mexicans that can get jobs outside the fields have taken those. How in the hell am I suppose to pay for college this fall? I didn't get in a dorm, so I have pay rent somewhere, and I can't afford to drive the 70 miles from my parents house everyday. They can't afford to help me with my rent, or get loans because they are retarded with their money and have a shitty credit rating. /end rant.
