Yaron Elkayam, 33, of Tel Aviv, said that the immigration police had arrested his partner, Nha Su, 34, even though he showed them documents concerning procedures for sorting out her legal status in Israel. The couple applied several months ago to the Ramat Gan Family Court, asking for recognition of Elkayam's paternity of his baby daughter.

When an Israeli citizen starts a family with a foreign partner, and the couple is unmarried, the Interior Ministry usually requires a declarative ruling from family court regarding the father's paternity. After the court sends the father for DNA tissue testing and paternity is proved, the ministry registers the baby as an Israeli citizen, and the foreign partner is permitted to undergo the process for becoming an Israeli resident.

Police ignored the documents presented to them and took Nha Su to the immigration police station in Holon, where she was given a hearing before representatives of the Interior Ministry's enforcement unit, which deals with the deportation of foreign workers.

Elkayam said the ministry officials were also shown the family court papers indicating that the couple is seeking legal standing for the mother and baby. Despite that, the ministry decided to issue a deportation order for the mother, with the stipulation that a NIS 10,000 bank guarantee deposited for six months would prevent her deportation for that duration.

"An Interior Ministry representative explained to me that half a year is enough time to take care of all the legal proceedings: Israeli citizenship for our baby, Yasmin, and legal standing for my partner," Elkayam said. But Elkayam, who earns low wages as an assistant cook, didn't have the money to get his partner released, so Nha Su was sent to the Renaissance detention facility in Nazareth.

"I don't understand my country," says Elkayam. "How do you deport the mother of a one-year-old baby who needs her mother 24 hours a day?"

Elkayam says his only recourse is a black-market loan at a very high interest rate.

"I don't know how to care for a baby, and besides that, I won't be able to work to support the household if I have to stay at home with my daughter, because I don't have money for a nanny," he said yesterday.

Attorney Nicole Maor of the Israel Religious Action Center told Haaretz yesterday that the demand for a bank guarantee "is at the Interior Ministry clerk's discretion, and is not mandatory."

Maor sent an urgent letter to the Interior Ministry, requesting Nha Su's release without bail and describing Elkayam's financial distress: "He earns NIS 3,500 a month, and with this he pays NIS 1,850 for rent, plus medical insurance for the baby, living expenses and bills. Elkayam's bank account is in enormous overdraft, and it's evident he is incapable of depositing such a large bank guarantee."

Maor explained to the clerks why the mother should not be detained or bail set as a condition for her release.

"It is likely that Elkayam will be shown to be the father of the baby Yasmin, in view of the fact that the couple has lived together for years. That being the case, the baby will be granted Israeli citizenship and the Interior Ministry will grant [legal civic] status to the girl's mother."

The Interior Ministry rejected Maor's request. "Nha Su came to Israel on a tourist visa in 2000, and has since resided here illegally," a spokeswoman said in response. "The couple did not apply to the Interior Ministry to settle the status of the mother or child, and claim they were referred to family court without applying to the Interior Ministry. As a rule, a NIS 30,000 guarantee is required in these situations, but in this case, in view of the woman's situation, a NIS 10,000 guarantee was decided on, in order to settle the mother's status in Israel and not to remove her. Nha Su's partner raised no objection to the amount of the guarantee while he was present in the holding facility in Holon."

Regarding attorney Maor's application to exempt the couple from posting bail, the spokeswoman said: "The director of the foreigners' enforcement unit at the population administration, Amir Gal, will address the request this morning and will consider how to handle the matter of this specific case."