The Biden Administration Finally Found Someone They Want to Deport

By: Chris Johnson

Back in 2008, the Romeike family fled Germany seeking political asylum in the United States.

They maintained that they were being persecuted by their government for their religious beliefs, particularly for homeschooling.

Several years prior, the Romeikes had pulled their children from state schools. As Christians, they perceived a bias against their beliefs in the public education curriculum.

Quoting a 2010 article from The Guardian, “They said textbooks presented ideas and language that conflicted with their Christian beliefs, including slang terms for sex acts and images of vampires and witches, while the school offered what they described as ethics lessons from Islam, Buddhism and other religions. The eldest son got into fights in school and the eldest daughter had trouble studying…”

So, for a while, they taught their children at home. Until one day, police began showing up to forcibly bring the Romeike children to the public school – homeschooling is illegal in Germany. This prompted a move by the Romeike to Morristown, Tennessee in 2008, where a judge “ruled that the family of seven have a legitimate fear of prosecution for their beliefs…”

But the story didn’t end there.

President Barack Obama’s administration appealed that Tennessee judge’s ruling, which eventually brought the case before the Supreme Court, who declined to hear it. By 2010, faced with deportation, the Romeikes’ predicament prompted a public outcry particularly from the homeschooling movement, and the Immigration Customs Enforcement Agency compromised to some extent, with assurance of “deferred action.” The Romeikes would have to keep in touch, checking in with ICE annually, but they wouldn’t be deported.

Fast forward to today. The Romeikes have been here for 15 years. They’ve had two children here in the US who are thus American citizens. Two of their older children have married American citizens, one of whom was a member of the Bates family of TLC fame. The family have all been working towards becoming citizens, but at their last annual check-in with ICE, they were informed that their welcome here is nearing an end. Even the two married children, one of whom just had a baby, are being told they must begin the process of self-deportation.

It must be acknowledged that by protecting the Romeikes from their native government, the US government was taking up a position on this issue: a position that confirmed the rights of the parents to select their children’s education and a position in support of parental rights, which are positions that our government is not exercising their authority to defend anywhere else in society today.

In fact, our public education system is probably very much like what the Romeike’s were fleeing, all while the state’s teachers insist that parents acquiesce to the demands of their radical curriculums. Indeed, our president not too long ago said “there’s no such thing as someone else’s child.”

Why would we expect this administration’s ICE department to reflect any different assumptions? As our public schools continue to teach easily recognized nonsense and homeschooling continues to gain popularity, how long before our state governments crack down like Germany’s did? Where could Americans in that position flee to?

In an interview with the National Review, the parents explained that: “Uwe works as a pianist at their church and at a local Christian university, where he teaches piano and has many students. Their oldest children work in the U.S.

“Having been gone for so many years, they don’t have any place to go in Germany, they said. They fear the older children won’t be able to find work in Germany because they grew up learning English and the German government will not recognize a homeschool diploma.

“’Even for us as parents, in 15 years we have made many, many friends,’ Uwe said. ‘We’ve been involved in the same church for over a decade. Our home is here in America, in Tennessee.’”

Pray for the Romeike family as they prepare for an unknown future and please sign this petition from the Home School Legal Defense Association as they work to keep the Romeike’s in their new homeland.

 

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