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STORY: December 16 was the deadline for men sixteen and older from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, and Syria to register with the immigration and naturalization service. This due to new policies for Registration and Monitoring of Certain Non-immigrants, which first took effect on September 11, 2002. Up to 700 Middle Eastern and Muslim men and boys were arrested in Southern California by federal immigration authorities after they voluntarily complied with the new program. The next registration deadline is January 10, 2003, by which time men older than 16 must register if they are from a dozen additional countries, most of them predominately Muslim. Failure to comply can result in arrest, detention, fines and/or removal from the United States. Two seminars this week at Houston's Islamic Education Center will address the new regulations. Director Syid Jaffrey: "We actually don't so far agree with this whole idea of the registration policy because I think you need to punish people for what they do, not who they are. And I think profiling based on either race or religion is not the way to find terrorists because I think terrorists aren't going to go and register." Present at the seminar will be pro-term mayor and city council member Gordon Quan, who is an immigration attorney. Jaffrey says he has also invited laywers from the American Civil Liberties Union to speak: "I think its important that our country is safe, it is important that our country's security - but not at the expense of civil rights of the law abiding citizens." Citizens or nationals of mostly Muslim countries like Yemen and the United Arab Emirates must go to a nearby INS office to be photographed, fingerprinted and interviewed under oath by next Friday. Next month, the same applies to Pakistanis in the U.S. as non-immigrants. Jaffrey expects a large turnout at this weekend's seminars as people fear another mass round-up. "It's the law abiding citizens who are actually scared and it reminds me of Orwellian kind of Big Brother totalitarianism rather than democracy here." The Special Registration Policy Seminar this weekend will inform the Islamic community what resources are available to assist them in this new process. E-mail Renee Feltz at chickpea_@ziplip.com . This story was broadcast on January 3, 2003.