Poraz declined to call a vote on his plan to grant permanent residency to children over the age of 10 who have lived in Israel for at least five years when it became apparent that he lacked support from the Likud ministers in attendance.

The committee was established 11 months ago to resolve the situation of hundreds of children who currently live in Israel without any status. With Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's dismissal of Shinui ministers following the budget vote Wednesday night, Poraz will no longer have a seat on the committee or a government position from which to press other leaders to back his stance.

Poraz "is very sorry that on such a humanitarian issue, the Likud Party was not able to vote in favor," said Tibi Rabinovici, Poraz's chief of staff, following the meeting.

Ministers opposed to the measure have expressed concern that giving these children residency status could force the government to confer similar status on Palestinian children living in Israel illegally, cost the state too much money and jeopardize the Jewish nature of the state.

Additionally, Minister-without-Portfolio Natan Sharansky objected to some of the specifics of Poraz's proposal, such as the requirement that all the children granted permanent residency be fit to serve in the army, which would unfairly exclude the handicapped.

They also couldn't have had a criminal record or parents who had entered the country illegally. Parents would have been able to stay until their children reached the age of 21.

Sharansky, who wasn't present at the meeting, also urged ministers to oppose the move because he felt not enough was known about the number of children affected by such a decision, despite the limiting of eligibility to only 650 kids.

Sigal Rozen of the Hot Line for Migrant Workers, however, cited Education Ministry figures of only 605 students over 10, or in fifth grade or higher, as well as 718 others who are ineligible because they are too young.

Those not to have been included in the one-time granting of residency would presumably have faced deportation. The Interior Ministry has maintained a policy of not deporting children of foreign workers while the issue of their status remains undetermined, which Rozen expects to continue in the short term since the committee took no definite action.

"I'm very disappointed," Rozen said. "It looks as if these children are going back to where they were until now – in limbo. They go back to the uncertainty, to not knowing what's going on."

Inna Ropot, the 20-year-old daughter of foreign workers, who thought that she would receive permanent residency yesterday, burst into tears when she heard the news.

"I felt that they stuck a knife in my heart," said Ropot, who came to the country five years ago from Moldova and considers herself "the most Israeli that one can possibly be."

She added that she passed her matriculation exams and hopes to join the army in order to become a police officer, but that she currently spends her days at home indoors out of fear that she'll be arrested and deported.

"If they don't give me a [legal] status, they'll ruin my life. I have no future," she said in fluent Hebrew.

Sarika Tannen of Kav La'oved, meanwhile, criticized Poraz for not achieving anything in his post. "He promised a lot of things for the foreign workers and nothing happened," Tannen said. "The truth is that the immigration police are only working faster and harder."