MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Civil rights groups have asked Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange to provide guidance to law enforcement officers concerning what officers can do to determine the immigration status of people detained in traffic stops.

The legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, Mary Bauer, urged Strange in a telephone press conference to explain to officers when they can detain people and for how long in light of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling concerning Arizona's immigration law.

Bauer said representatives of the SPLC, the American Civil Liberties Union and National Immigration Law Center sent a letter Monday to Strange asking him to provide the guidance. She said the groups have received reports of people being stopped indefinitely while police check their immigration status. Strange could not immediately be released for comment.