A lawsuit against the Department of Justice will be heard April 23 … Federal
government based decision on an international law ruling….White House petition
seeks 100,000 signatures in 30 days….Germany fines parents for home schooling
and sometimes revokes custody….An estimated 2 million children in the US are
home schooled
The Obama
administration is arguing in federal court that a homeschooling family from
Germany should be deported back to their homeland, despite what they say is religious
persecution. The German government prevented Uwe and Hannelore Romeike from
teaching their five children at home instead of sending them to government-run
schools, fining them and threatening to prosecute them if they don't obey.
When they took
their three oldest children out of school in 2006, police showed up at their
house within 24 hours, only leaving after a group of supporters showed up and
organized a quick protest.
But their legal
troubles were just beginning. Germany began fining the family, ultimately
racking up a bill of more than 7,000 Euros ($9,000).
After they fled
to the United States in 2010, the Romeike family initially were granted
political asylum and found a home in Tennessee. They had a sixth child. But
then U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) appealed the asylum
decision in 2012.
The federal
Board of Immigration Appeals sided with the government despite a 2011 policy
that gives the government broad discretion to pursue only high-priority cases.
ICE would not
provide details about the case, or its reasons for pursuing the Romeikes.'We do
not comment on pending litigation,' ICE public affairs officer Brandon
Montgomery told MailOnline.
Uwe and
Hannelore Romeike fled Germany with their five children because the government
there criminalized home schooling. A sixth child was born after they took up
residence and Tennessee and won permanent asylum on human rights grounds. The
Obama administration appealed and seeks their deportation back to Germany
The Romeikes
teach their five school-age children at home, including computer lessons along
with reading, writing, math, history, music and other subjects
The Home School
Legal Defense Association sued the US Department of Justice because a judge in
that agency's Executive Office for Immigration Review was responsible for the
decision.
A three-judge
panel in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the case of Romeike v.
Holder on April 23.
Michael Farris,
that organization's founding chairman, told MailOnline in a telephone interview
that the even if the federal government doesn't believe home schooling is a
human rights issue that qualifies for political asylum, it can still let the
family remain in the US and home school their children.
'The attorney
general absolutely has the discretion to let these people stay,' Farris said of
the devoutly Christian family.
'I really
wonder what would've happened to the Pilgrims under this administration,' he
said recently on the Fox News Channel.
Christopher
Bentley, a Tennessee spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, said his agency was
involved in the case early on.
'I can't talk
about any asylum cases in particular,' he cautioned, 'but our office would have
responsibility for initially determining whether they qualified for asylum in
the United States.'
'We're the
first step in establishing "credible fear," and then making a
determination of whether they qualify for asylum in the United States. They
have to claim that their government can't protect them from persecution because
they're part of a specific group. That's the basis for any asylum grant.'
'We, the
undersigned, respectfully request that the Obama Administration grant full and
permanent legal status to Uwe and Hannelore Romeike and their children,' the
petition reads. If it attracts 100,000 signatures by April 18, it will trigger
a response from the administration
At the point
where the Romeikes were granted asylum, the Department of Homeland Security was
off the case. But after the Board of Immigration Review heard the case and
overturned the asylum ruling, DHS re-entered the picture, since it's the agency
charged with enforcing immigration judges' decisions.
Farris has
started a petition to pressure the White House to let the family
remain in the country. It has attracted more than 21,000 signatures toward a
goal of 100,000, which must be reached by April 18 in order to trigger a
response from the Obama administration.
'Every state in
the United States of America recognizes the right to homeschool,' the petition
reads, 'and the U.S. has the world’s largest and most vibrant homeschool
community. Regrettably, this family faces deportation in spite of the
persecution they will suffer in Germany.'
An estimated 2
million children in the US are home schooled.
But the
practice is illegal in Germany. An estimated 200 families teach their own
children there anyway, even at the risk of fines, criminal prosecution and, in
some cases, the loss of custody of their children.
Uwe Romeike
supervises one of her daughters during a reading lesson in their Tennessee
home. The Obama administration seeks their deportation back to Germany, where
home schooling is illegal
Germany made
school attendance mandatory in 1918. During the Nazi era, that law was made
even more restrictive to ensure that young Germans were indoctrinated with
Adolph Hitler's national socialist ideology.
The German
Supreme Court has ruled that it wants to 'counteract the development of
religious and philosophically motivated parallel societies,' Farris explained.
'And that's a direct quote.'
'We want to
give them a safe harbor. That's what asylum is for.'
That court
ruled in 2007 that parents who home school their children can have their
custody rights limited or eliminated entirely.
German families
have sought refuge in both Canada and New Zealand in recent years, citing the
same reasons as the Romeikes. Both cases were denied.
The Justice
Department did not respond to a request for comment. Attorney General Eric
Holder could intervene and allow the Romeikes to remain in the country on
humanitarian grounds, even if the Obama administration doesn't believe home
schooling parents should qualify for asylum as a matter of principle.
The school day
in the Romeike household is a conducted around the kitchen table, with Uwe
making the rounds as her children study. An advocacy group sued the federal
government over their deportation order, and a federal appeals court will hear
the case in April
Federal law
allows refugees to stay in the United States permanently if they can show they
are being persecuted for reasons including their religion or their membership
in a 'particular social group.'
But in its
argument against the Romeikes' asylum, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
called home schoolers too 'amorphous' to qualify.
'United States
law has recognized the broad power of the state to compel school attendance and
regulate curriculum and teacher certification' along with the 'authority to
prohibit or regulate homeschooling,' ICE wrote.
When the Board
of Immigration Appeals overturned the judge's initial grant of asylum, it based
its decision on a case where the European Court of Human Rights ruled that 'the
public education laws of Germany do not violate basic human rights.'
A science
curriculum is part of the Romeikes' home schooling curriculum, including access
to a microscope, laboratory equipment and other things they would have if they
attended traditional schools. The German government forbids home schooling, and
the US government wants them deported back to their home country
The Home School
Legal Defense Association's argument is that the federal government should not
substitute international law for US law.
'I think we
have a really good case,' Farris said.
He believes there
are likely only three possibilities that would explain why the Obama
administration is working so hard to deport the Romeike family.
'It could be
that the government is just anti-homeschooling, or anti-religious-freedom,'
Farris said. 'Or perhaps they have some deal with the German government.' 'I
don't know which it is, but none of the options is pretty.'
PUBLISHED: 14:48 EST, 28 March
2013 | UPDATED: 16:58 EST, 28 March 2013
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2300568/Obama-administration-wants-DEPORT-home-schooling-family-Germany-fined-threatened-prosecution-teaching-children.html#ixzz2PFFl51ws
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