Carlos Santana slams Georgia immigration law

Guitarist Carlos Santana has a strongly criticised a new Georgia bill designed to crack down on illegal immigration.

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal officially signed a new law that will allow police officers to check into the immigration status of anyone believed to be inhabiting the state unlawfully.

While accepting the Beacon of Change Award at the Atlanta Braves baseball team's Civil Rights game on Sunday, Mexican-born Santana chastised Georgians in the crowd for supporting the legislation and also slammed a similar bill enacted in Arizona.

"I represent the human race," he said. "The people of Arizona, and the people of Atlanta, Georgia, you should be ashamed of yourselves."

Santana also told reporters that he believes anti-immigration laws will serve only to alienate much of the population.

"It's an anti-American law… It's a cruel law, actually. This is about fear. Stop shucking and jiving. People are afraid we're going to steal your job. No we aren't. You're not going to change sheets and clean toilets," he said.

"This is the United States. This is the land of the free. If people want the immigration laws to keep passing, then everybody should get out and leave the American Indians here."

Santana moved with his family from Tijuana to San Francisco when he was just a boy. He eventually became a US citizen in 1965.

Earlier this year, the rocker married his second wife Cindy Blackman in Hawaii.

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Watch Santana and Rob Thomas perform 'Smooth' below: