I have heard the rumor.  Maybe you have heard it too.  The rumor is: Police Officers are now able to ask for proof of citizenship from anyone they pull over. 

Are our public safety officers expected to become immigration officials?  If this is true, how will the state handle complaints that only those with darker complexions are being asked their status?  Is this really happening?  If not now, will it?  Some are saying that this new practice is already in effect.  I tried to find some additional information to back this rumor up.  All I could find were various articles stating something similar to this:

PHOENIX — Police in suburban Scottsdale have begun routinely asking for proof of citizenship from every suspect they arrest and turning those who are in this country illegally over to federal immigration officials. The procedure was started Oct. 15, a result of the September killing of Phoenix police officer Nick Erfle by an illegal immigrant, Erik Jovani Martinez. Scottsdale police had arrested Martinez on a misdemeanor charge 16 months earlier but they released him then because they didn’t know he was an illegal immigrant who had been twice deported. Erfle’s killing “caused us to look at what were asking suspects,” Scottsdale police Sgt. Mark Clark said. “If we arrest someone and then find that we called ICE (Customs and Immigration Enforcement) and they put a hold on them, then we know they have been deported and are back again.”

Reading this, it makes sense that an individual who has been "arrested" be properly identified.  But is it going to far to pull people over and ask them their immigration status?