Some Latino leaders compared the law to Apartheid in South Africa or the Japanese American internment during World War II . The law 's aspect that officers may question the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country illegally became characterized in some quarters as the " show me your papers " or " your papers , please " provision . This echoed a common trope regarding Germans in World War II films . Such an association was explicitly made by Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois . Congressman Jared Polis of Colorado and Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn also said the law 's requirement to carry papers all the time was reminiscent of the anti-Jewish legislation in prewar Nazi Germany and feared that Arizona was headed towards becoming a police state . Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles said , " I ca n'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 . " The Anti-Defamation League called for an end to the comparisons with Nazi Germany , saying that no matter how odious or unconstitutional the Arizona law might be , it did not compare to the role that Nazi identity cards played in what eventually became the extermination of European Jews
extermination of European Jews
The Holocaust
Arizona SB 1070