SANTA FE, NM (By Julia Meena Hartenstein, Daily News) June 15, 2010 ― Reports are swirling Hispanics in Arizona are fleeing the state before a controversial new immigration law goes into effect July 29.

The law, which has sparked a heated national debate, requires police officers to conduct routine traffic stops or other checks to ask people about their immigration status if there is "reasonable suspicion" they're in the country illegally.

Though precise numbers are not yet available, early anecdotal reports from local schools, businesses and residents indicate Hispanics could be leaving in droves to avoid the law's impact, USA Today reported Wednesday.

Superintendent Jeffrey Smith of the Balsz Elementary School District, which is 75% Hispanic, said 70 students were pulled out of school following the law's passage April 23 and parents said it was the reason they were leaving.

Retailers are expecting the hit too. David Castillo, co-founder of the Latin Association of Arizona, told USA Today local businesses serving the Hispanic community have started to report declining profits, an indicator illegal immigrants are stockpiling their cash to prepare for a move.

This isn't the first time an Arizona law has prompted a population shift.

About 100,000 illegal immigrants moved elsewhere after a law was passed in 2007 that penalized businesses for hiring them, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

A recent Census report also suggests Hispanics have been leaving Arizona since the recession began - approximately 40,000 relocated in 2008. Those who move typically do not return to Mexico but re-settle in other, friendlier states.

Paul Senseman, a spokesman for Republican Governor Jan Brewer who signed the inflammatory law, said he had heard similar reports of Hispanics planning to flee. "If that means that fewer people are breaking the law, that is absolutely an accomplishment," he told USA Today.

In all likelihood, Arizona will not see "tangible evidence" of any population change until late in the year when the schools are required to report their enrollment numbers, Amy Rezzonico, spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Education, told Fox News.

David Gutierrez, an immigration history professor at the University of California San Diego, said he is hesitant to predict the law will have a dramatic impact on the numbers of Arizona Hispanics.

Gutierrez told the Christian Science Monitor, “I don’t see a historical trend that has been in place for 100 years will be reversed because you’ve got a few hyper-conservative white legislators trying to turn back the clock, turn back the tides of history.”

That being said, Gutierrez believes a mass exodus would be crippling for the state. "If I were able to conduct an experiment and pay all of Arizona’s undocumented workers to not work for two weeks, the economy would come to a screeching, crashing halt instantaneously.”

The clash over immigration continues to rage across the country. The Arizona SB 1070 Cancer begins to spread to 18 states

Today in Chicago, NBC reports, Alderman Danny Solis compared Arizona's law to Hitler's Third Reich. "In the early stages of Nazi Germany, there was a law that identified particular groups of people," Solis said. "This law has identified a particular group of people.

Solis added, "This law is evil."