Deport the Christians
Every day, the government allows thousands to enter this country illegally. Women and girls are routinely raped and sex trafficked while crossing. Drug cartels move massive amounts of narcotics into the county along the very porous southern border. Over the years, many concerned citizens have urged officials to take stronger action—and now they have. The Biden Administration has ordered a German Christian family to leave the country.
In 1938, the Nazi government of Germany passed a law banning homeschooling. Hitler knew that his dominance of Germany would be greater if he controlled education. While homeschooling is growing worldwide the German law has never been revoked. Homeschooling remains virtually unknown in that country. For several years, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike had growing concerns about what their children were being taught in German public schools and so decided to homeschool their five children. The German government took the parents to court and the family faced increasing fines and possibly the loss of their children. Feeling persecuted for their evangelical Christian faith, in 2008 they decided to flee to a land that respected Christian faith and freedom. They flew to the United States.
The Romeike family
But the United States didn’t welcome them. While an immigration judge did initially grant the family’s application for asylum. The Obama Administration appealed the decision, and the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals revoked the family’s asylum status. With the help of the Home School Legal Defense Association the family brought the case to the Court of Appeals in 2013 but they lost.
According to some sources, the appeals court may have been legally correct. From the German point of view, homeschooling is illegal and the law is enforced equally. Any family that attempts to homeschool is brought into court and fined. From the American point of view, Germany is not persecuting the Romeike family, Christians, or any other group. If the German government singled out Christians the Romeikes would have a case. While I understand the legal viewpoint I’m left thinking that both countries have bad laws.
Public outcry in 2013 moved the federal government to grant the Romeike family an “indefinitely deferred action status,” which allowed them to remain in the United States. For the last ten years the family has quietly, and legally, lived and worked in eastern Tennessee. Uwe works at Carson-Newman University. Two of their older children are married to American citizens, and the two youngest children are American citizens by virtue of being born in this country. However, this legal limbo recently came to an abrupt end.
What caused this status change is unclear but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) suddenly became interested in the case. An immigration official went to the Romeikes’ home and told them to prepare to “self-deport.” This appears to have been done in the hope that the family would leave quietly. However, the family is thoroughly integrated into American life and reluctant to leave.
The Home School Legal Defense Association continues to work with the family and Tennessee Republican Representative Diana Harshbarger has introduced a bill that would provide permanent resident status to the family. However, the Romeike family remains in limbo at the edge of a legal cliff.
Real immigration reform is needed but as we draft new laws and build much-needed barriers along the border we should strive to remain a country willing to accept those fleeing persecution. In the fifteen years they have lived in the United States, the Romeikes have hoped for that, the right to live as a family and raise their own children. We should honor that.
