Homeschooling German Family Now Facing Deportation

As you may have already read, the Romeike family fled their native Germany because as Evangelical Christians they do not approve of what their children were learning in government schools, and laws dating to the Nazi regime prohibit them from homeschooling. With the help of the Home School Legal Defense Association, they settled in Morristown, Tennessee, where an immigration judge granted them asylum.

However, the Romeike family aren't Muslims with connections to a radical mosque, or part of a Mexican drug cartel, so Obama administration thugs are now appealing their asylum and seeking to return the family to Germany where, under that nation's laws, their children can be taken from them and placed in foster homes.

Whether viewed from a homeschool or a state-run institution, it is quite a lesson about what has become of America's "golden door" and the land of "liberty and justice for all."

From Time
By Tristana Moore

The Romeikes are not your typical asylum seekers. They did not come to the U.S. to flee war or despotism in their native land. No, these music teachers left Germany because they didn't like what their children were learning in public school - and because homeschooling is illegal there.

"It's our fundamental right to decide how we want to teach our children," says Uwe Romeike, an Evangelical Christian and a concert pianist who sold his treasured Steinway to help pay for the move.

Romeike decided to uproot his family in 2008 after he and his wife had accrued about $10,000 in fines for homeschooling their three oldest children and police had turned up at their doorstep and escorted them to school. "My kids were crying, but nobody seemed to care," Romeike says of the incident.

Read the rest of this entry >>

British Journalist Asks 'Can I Claim Asylum in the US?'

From The Telegraph
By Ed West

A German family have been granted asylum in the United States because their children were being forced to learn a curriculum that was “against Christian values”, according to German paper The Local.

A US court has granted asylum to an evangelical Christian family who fled Germany because they were not allowed to homeschool their children.

An immigration judge in Nashville, Tennessee ruled that parents Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, and their five children, are free to stay in the US, where they have been since 2008, news agency AP reported late on Tuesday.

The parents, who came from the state of Baden-Württemberg, allege they were persecuted for their faith and defiance of Germany’s compulsory school attendance since those who do not comply face fines and jail time.

According to Uwe Romeike, his family was fined the equivalent of some $10,000 over two years, but could not afford to make payments after their court appeals failed.

“I think it’s important for parents to have the freedom to choose the way their children can be taught,” Romeike told AP, later adding that German curriculum was increasingly “against Christian values.”

The other day I asked if parents who did not toe the New Labour political line could take their children out of “Citizenship” classes, but I didn’t realise I might be able to flee Europe altogether.

In Britain, meanwhile, the Government is trying to make homeschooling even harder, supposedly because homeschooled children could be abused more, but in reality, I suspect, because many of the parents are religious.

Homeschooling may not be everyone’s cup of tea, nor is Evangelical Christianity for that matter, but allowing parents to decide their children’s education is a mark of a free society. And many parents of young children, and not even just religious ones, feel rightfully uncomfortable about schools trying to force the state’s morality on their kids, and not just in the arena of sex.

Marc Young, editor of the Local, says the Romeikes have made a “mockery” of US asylum policy, but the decision is entirely in line with American tradition. The Puritans left East Anglia for New England not because they feared death or imprisonment but because under James I, Englishmen were expected to follow a narrow Anglican worldview. Conservatives in western Europe feel the same way today.

Now where can I apply for asylum to the US?

Ed West is a journalist and social commentator who specializes in politics, religion and low culture.

German Homeschooling Family Flees to England After Attempt to Seize Children

German homeschooling father greets family after stint in jail.

By Peter J. Smith

LONDON, January 9, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A German family has fled to safe haven in the United Kingdom after the mayor of their town attempted to have their children seized and put into state custody for the crime of homeschooling according to WorldNetDaily (WND).

WND reports that officials with Netzwerk-Bildungsfreiheit, a German homeschooling advocacy group, said that Klaus and Kathrin Landahl and their five children, "are in safety in England. They reached Dover on Saturday midnight."

The Landahl family was preparing to leave the country and had deregistered themselves as German citizens, when the Mayor of Altensteig filed a lawsuit with the local family court demanding it intervene and take custody away from the Landahls.

A spokesman for the advocacy group told WND, "As the mayor knows that the family wants to leave Germany and that they have deregistered, his attempt is that the family court takes custody away in a so-called … (preliminary warrant) which means that custody can be taken away without a hearing [for] the parents."

He added also that in the Landahl case, not only were the authorities seeking to usurp the parents' right to decide their children's education, but also their right "to determine the place of abode," an action more in line with Soviet-era East Germany.

The Landahls were in the process of moving into a rented apartment abroad when the court served them with a legal notice of the lawsuit.

Joel Thornton, President of the International Human Rights Group, which advocate for homeschoolers in Germany, told LifeSiteNews.com that the report from Netzwerk-Bildungsfreiheit is troubling since, "German government officials are willing to violate their own procedures to take the custody of children from the parents for nothing more than homeschooling. Were there criminal activity going on that was being avoided it would be understandable, however the system would probably not be so quick to act."

It is outrageous that children would be separated from their parents over this issue. The German courts need to move to protect the well being of their families from such severe government action," Thornton said.

"Every parent in the world, not just homeschool parents, should be outraged that their rights are trampled by the Mayor of this town, he said. "Parents should express their outrage to the Mayor by email and let him know that this is not acceptable behavior in civilized countries."

The local court has not issued a final ruling in the case, but ever since Germany's Supreme Court ruled in favour of the state against homeschooling last fall, most families have found safety to exist in flight.

WND reports that this week a Bavarian man identifying himself as "Mathew" sent this message: "This morning we received a call from the German ministry of education. Tomorrow (Wednesday) morning they will send the police to our home and take Josia (6), Lou Ann (10) and Aileen (13) by force, to the public school."

According to "Matthew," the government was emboldened by the high court's decision, and since then it has increased substantially its persecution of homeschooling families.

"If we do not comply the government will ultimately revoke our rights as parents and take custody of our children," he said.

Another family said they were escaping Germany after their lawyer concluded that "only jail and loss of custody are left" as penalties from the government.

"We are leaving Germany for now, and our children and my husband Tilman have already given up their permanent residence in Germany," said a note from Dagmar Neubronner. "I will maintain my permanent residence in Bremen because I am the bearer of our small publishing house…"

"It is hard to leave everything behind, especially our tomcat (a neighbor will take care of him), our relatives and friends and choirs and music ensembles and sports teams, our house and garden - our town and our country."


To contact the Mayor of Altensteig:

Herr Bürgermeister
Jürgen Großman
Rathausplatz 1
72213 Altensteig
Germany

Email: juergen.grossman@altensteig.de
Phone: 0 75 53 / 94 61-117 Go ahead and write, email or fax, in English if necessary.

See Laigle's Forum website:
http://laiglesforum.com/2008/01/08/parallel-society-your-nam...

See related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:

Homeschooling Missionary Family Narrowly Avoids German Deportation for Now
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/dec/07122110.html

German Homeschooler Melissa Busekros Home with Family after 3 Month Ordeal
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/apr/07042301.html

Three More Families Appeal for Help as Germany Continues Crackdown on Homeschooling Families
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/apr/07041609.html

German Court Places Custody of Yet Another 5 Homeschooling Children with Government's Youth Office
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07032204.html

Authorities Ask German Homeschooling Family to Give up Custody of Other 5 Children
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/feb/07022602.html

European Human Rights Court Rules State May Deny Parents Right to Home School Their Children
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/sep/06092708.html &nbs...;