Phoenix, Arizona (CNN) -- Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a state bill Friday that requires police to determine whether a person is in the United States legally, which critics say will foster racial profiling and discrimination but supporters say will crack down on illegal immigration.
The Republican governor also issued an executive order that would require additional training for local officers on how to implement the law without engaging in racial profiling.
"This training will include what does and does not constitute reasonable suspicion that a person is not legally present in the United States," Brewer said after signing the bill.
Previously, officers could check someone's immigration status only if that person was suspected in another crime.
What will Arizona's immigration law do?
Brewer's executive order was in response to critics who argue that the new law will lead to racial profiling, saying that most police officers don't have enough training to look past race while investigating a person's legal status.
"Racial profiling is illegal. It is illegal in America, and it's certainly illegal in Arizona," Brewer said.
The bill is considered to be among the toughest immigration measures in the nation. Supporters say the measure is needed to fill a void left by the federal government's failure to enforce its immigration laws.
This week, its leading sponsor, state Sen. Russell Pearce, said, "Illegal is not a race; it's a crime."
"We're going to take the handcuffs off of law enforcement. We're going to put them on the bad guy," said Pearce, a Republican.
The bill requires immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times and requires police to question people if there is reason to suspect that they're in the United States illegally. It also targets those who hire illegal immigrant day laborers or knowingly transport them.
In the hours leading up to the bill's signing, thousands rallied at the Arizona Capitol, and President Obama, in the nation's capital, called the legislation "misguided" but said the federal government must act on the immigration issue.
"Our failure to act responsible at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others. That includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe," the president said at a naturalization ceremony for 24 members of the military.
Latino members of Congress also slammed the bill. "When you institutionalize a law like this one, you are targeting and discriminating at a wholesale level against a group of people," Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona, said Tuesday.
Grijalva and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, had called on Brewer to veto the measure.
Gutierrez is a leading supporter of a proposed overhaul of U.S. immigration laws and said the Arizona issue shows why an overhaul is necessary. He has urged Obama to "put his back into the push" and to let Arizona know that federal law trumps state legislation on immigration.
Brewer said that "decades of federal inaction and misguided policies" have created "a dangerous and unacceptable situation."
The governor said Arizona's law mirrors federal statutes on immigration enforcement, "despite the erroneous and misleading statements suggesting otherwise."
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