LOS ANGELES/Washington, Oct 31: A new immigration controversy between United States and Canada has cropped up following Wednesday’s travel advisory by Canada asking its citizens born in Pakistan, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia to extreme caution while travelling to the United States.

The Canadian foreign ministry said the warning was issued after Washington stipulated that anyone born in the above countries, particularly Iran, Libya, Syria and Sudan, to be fingerprinted and photographed on arrival.

Several US and Canadian business organizations have criticized the new law, saying it would hurt border trade between the two countries.

Pam Christianson, President of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, let out a groan when asked about the advisory telling Canadians born in Iran, Iraq and Syria to think twice about travelling to the US.

“One of my chamber members called me about it this morning just irate,” she said. “I was flabbergasted when I heard about it. It’s like, ‘Oh my God. Why would they do that?’”, she told the Seattle Times.

The hardware store and lumberyard she owns get lots of Canadian customers who have second homes on Birch Bay. Other businesses in her city, right on the British Columbia border, rely even more heavily on Canadian tourists.

They took a hit when border security was tightened after the Sept 11 attacks.

The Canadian advisory, she fears, is going to cause more problems. “And why?” she asked. “Are they just trying to keep people home?”

Canadian officials say the US practcice of fingerprinting unfairly targets some citizens based on where they were born.

The Canadian Islamic Congress has also condemned the US travel laws.

The Canadian Islamic Congress said in a press statement: “Ottawa has to do something about tough new US border restrictions that target Canadians born in the Middle East and South Asia.”

Dr Mohamed Elmasry, president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, says Ottawa has to remind Washington that there are no second-class Canadian citizens.

“We have only one type of citizenship,” he said on Wednesday. “We treat all of our citizens equally. There’s no difference between those who are born in Canada and those who are born abroad,” he said.

A foreign affairs spokesperson says Ottawa is trying to persuade Washington to do away with the regulation for Canadians.

State department: In Washington the US State Department on Thursday defended the new rules for fingerprinting and photographing Canadians of Middle Eastern origin, saying that they would make the United States a safer place.

Spokesman Richard Boucher referred specifically to the case of Algerian-born Ahmed Ressam, who was arrested in Dec 1999 trying to enter the United States from Canada in a car packed with explosives.

It later emerged that he had ignored a Canadian deportation order against him and even managed to obtain a Canadian passport.

“So, yes, it’s a big border and bad guys try to come across. I think that goes without saying. The question is what we, in cooperation with the Canadian government, can do to make both our countries safer,” said Boucher.

Last month, US agents at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport arrested a Canadian they suspected of links to militant groups, finally expelling him to Syria on Oct 8.

Mohamed Arar — who also holds a Syrian passport — was arrested as he was changing planes on his way back to Canada from Tunisia. He is in detention in Syria, where authorities are probing whether he has links to Al Qaeda.

US critics charge that Canada’s immigration system does not do enough to weed out militants who might want to launch attacks in the United States.