Subjected to criminal prosecution for homeschooling their six children, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike fled Germany in 2008. U.S. Immigration Judge Lawrence O. Burman granted the family asylum in 2010, only to see his decision overturned in 2012 after it was targeted directly by the Obama administration.
On Tuesday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the administration’s denial of asylum granted to the Romeike family.
“The Obama administration is basically saying there is no right to home school anywhere,” said Michael Farris, founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association. “It’s an utter repudiation of parental liberty and religious liberty.”
The Justice Dept. is arguing that German law banning home schooling does not violate the family’s human rights.
“They are trying to send a family back to Germany where they would certainly lose custody of their children,” Farris told Fox News. “Our government is siding with Germany.”
“Germany continues to persecute homeschoolers,” said Mike Donnelly, HSLDA Director of International Affairs. “The court ignored mountains of evidence that homeschoolers are harshly fined and that custody of their children is gravely threatened—something most people would call persecution. This is what the Romeikes will suffer if they are sent back to Germany.”
German law bans homeschooling, as the country doesn’t want to have religious and philosophical minorities within the country. In other words, they don’t want to have people think differently than the government.
More telling is their insistence that the government has first rights when it comes to the indoctrination of children. Parents that attempt to usurp that authority by imparting their faith through homeschooling risk losing their family.
In sharp contrast, America has traditionally held the parents responsible for the education of their children. Early in the twentieth century, with fears of immigration impacting society, this fundamental principal was challenged — and upheld.
The U.S. Supreme Court stated:
“…the child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.” Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510(1925).
In the U.S., an estimated 2 million children are legally homeschooled and enjoying this right. And like the Romeike family, they ask nothing from the state other than to be left alone.
So what could possibly be the administration’s motive for singling out this family for deportation?
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