AN AUSTRALIAN politician travelling overseas has been asked by American security how she 'got' an Australian passport, according to Twitter.

Greens Party MP Mehreen Faruqi tweeted this morning about her experience at the LAX airport. She is traveling through America looking at drug reforms that could work here in Australia.

After fingerprinting etc, we were asked how we 'got' Aussie passports & marched off to the interview room for grilling. Welcome to America. — Mehreen Faruqi (@MehreenFaruqi) January 14, 2016

The Greens Party posted on Facebook about the incident:

"Wow -- when Australia's first female Muslim MP travels to America *this* is what happens.

It's our job to make sure this sort of discrimination is never acceptable in Australia. We hope your trip improves Mehreen Faruqi."

The post has sparked a discussion about discrimination by Americans and whether or not Australia should stop certain US citizens from entering Australia.

Here are some of the comments on the Greens' Facebook post:

Louise Messenger-Riley - That's disgusting. If we treated an american politician like this there it would be international news... but a Female, Muslim, Australian? Disgraceful.



Eric Fairman - That is a direct insult to Australia. Reciprocate....BAN the likes of Donald Trump from entering Oz !!

Catherine Jordan - It's unacceptable for sure but do you think the same thing is not happening here in Australia? Are we trying to paint America as this terrible racist/discriminatory country? Look a bit closer to home, it's happening in this country every day!

Rachel Tan - I haven't travelled to the US since the 90s so I wouldn't claim to know whether fingerprinting is typical practice these days. However, being questioned as to how you obtained an Australian passport when you are an MP is pretty insulting. I doubt such treatment would be doled out to a white Australian MP with an Aussie accent.