A German family that fled to the U.S. in 2008 over their home country’s ban on homeschooling may have to “self-deport” after a decade of deferred action status here, their legal team said.
Uwe and Hannelore Romeike and their seven children, who live in Morristown, Tennessee, were given the news Sept. 6 during a routine Immigration and Customs Enforcement office check-in. They were told they had four weeks to obtain German passports and return there.
Kevin Boden, an attorney with Home School Legal Defense Association assisting the family, told The Washington Times on Tuesday that no explanation for the demand was given. He expects the family to appear before ICE in early October with their passports and wonders what will happen next.
“They’re going to do what they’ve done for the last 15 years, which is, they’re going to comply with the law,” Mr. Boden said in a telephone interview. “They arrived here lawfully, they’ve remained here lawfully, they have followed all of the orders of supervision that ICE put on them for the last 10 years. And their plan is to do just that, to be law-abiding.”
Two of the Romeike children were born here, Mr. Boden noted, and are thus U.S. citizens. He said two others have married U.S. citizens, but the remaining Romeikes, now adults, have “aged out” of the educational system.
Mr. Boden said it would only be speculation that being past the age for compulsory education may have put the family members on ICE’s radar.
“Uwe and Hannelore are just lovely people with minor children who are U.S. citizens,” he said. “So what happens there? You’d be forced to force [the parents] out and tell them, ‘Well, if you want to stay with your minor kids, you better bring them with you. It’s a little bit crazy,”
On Tuesday evening, an ICE spokesperson told The Times via email its Enforcement and Removal Operations unit “conducts removals of individuals without a lawful basis to remain in the United States, including at the order of immigration judges with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). ERO reviews each case as appropriate.”
Speaking with The Times, Uwe Romeike said a forced removal would be very disruptive for the family.
His American children “have all their friends and social ties” in the country, while his older children “have worked here” and are no longer fluent in German.
“We wouldn’t know what to actually do in Germany,” Mr. Romeike said. “We wouldn’t have any place to go, no place to live or work.”
The Romeikes’ fight against the German homeschooling ban began in 2006. The parents wanted to educate their children at home over concerns that public school curriculum in Germany featured anti-Christian teachings and “sexual elements,” the HSLDA said.
In the years since they arrived in this country, the Romeikes have faced several challenges. A grant of asylum was overturned on appeal, and it looked like the family would have to return. However, the Obama administration granted the Romeikes “indefinite deferred action” status in 2013.
“The Romeike family should be able to stay in the United States and home educate their children,” HSLDA president Jim Mason said in a statement. “America is a land of freedom and opportunity, and there are few freedoms or opportunities more important than the ability of parents to safely direct the education of their own children, without fear of punishment or persecution.”
An official at the Family Research Council, which also backed the Romeikes during their initial asylum battle, said the current ICE demand is “just appalling.”
Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for education studies, said in an interview, “it beggars belief to think that we have a southern border that is open to just all kinds of ridiculous flow of of people making completely illegitimate asylum claims for the most part, and then you have a beautiful family who from every indication are productive members of our society, being denied a claim for asylum based on the fact that they want to homeschool their children and will not be allowed to do so in Germany.”
According to German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, homeschooling has been outlawed in Germany since 1919. The news service said exceptions to national and regional compulsory education laws are rare. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2019 against another German family whose children were removed for three weeks in a homeschooling controversy.
The family might have a reprieve if a private bill. H.R. 5423, introduced by Rep. Diana Harshbarger, a Tennessee Republican whose district includes the family’s home, passes the House and Senate. The bill would confer immigrant visas or “permanent resident status” on the family members.
Mr. Romeike said a previous measure had been introduced by then-Rep. Phil Roe, a Republican who previously represented their district in Congress, but it did not pass.
The HSLDA attorney, Mr. Boden, said the organization is “grateful” to Rep. Harshbarger for introducing the bill, and asks supporters to “to reach out to their representatives to encourage them to sponsor and support this bill. That’s something that every citizen in the country can do.”
The bill is now with the House Judiciary Committee, and The Washington Times has contacted the panel for comment.
“They’re a lovely family [with] the character of a family that you and I would want next door,” Mr. Boden said. “They built their life here and we want them to stay and continue to build their life.”
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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