U.S. Judge Grants Political Asylum to German Homeschoolers

In a slap to the face of one of our allies, an immigration judge has granted political asylum to a German family fleeing persecution.

On Tuesday, in a first of its kind case, a federal immigration judge in Memphis, Tennessee granted political asylum to the Romeike family, who fled Germany in 2008 to escape persecution from the German government for the "crime" of homeschooling.


Judge Burman said in his decision that, "The rights being violated here are basic human rights that no country has a right to violate."


Judge Burman also expressed concern that while Germany is a democratic country and an ally, its policy of persecuting homeschoolers is "repellent to everything we believe as Americans."


The persecution of homeschoolers in Germany has been intensifying over the past several years. Such families are regularly fined thousands of dollars, threatened with imprisonment, or have the custody of their children taken away simply because they choose to home educate.


"This ruling is a major embarrassment for Germany," said Mike Donnelly, staff attorney and Director of International Relations for HSLDA. "We hope this decision will cause Germany to stop persecuting homeschoolers."

Life Site News

The German family started home schooling their children because they claim the curriculum in public schools had become more and more against Christian values.

This is the same Greman government that jailed 8 fathers for removing their children from sex-ed classes. Those classes included a theatre production of "Mein Körper gehört mir" or "My Body Belongs to Me," which informs young children in how to engage in sexual intercourse.

ANNED tried to look up the film on the web with shocking results:

Originally posted by ANNED
You can not watch the sex ed film "Mein Körper gehört mir" in the US because its blocked as child porn.

Just having a copy will get you jail time.

The News Tribune

When the Romeikes wouldn't comply with repeated orders to send the children to school, police came to their home one October morning in 2006 and took the children to school. German state constitutions require children to attend public or private schools and parents can face fines or prison time if they don't comply.

In November 2007, Germany's highest appellate court ruled that, in severe cases, social services officials could remove children from their parents.

After that decision, Romeike said, "We knew we had to leave the country."

I wonder how this will effect US - Greman relations.






[edit on 27-1-2010 by FortAnthem]

Well I do hope that since we are allowing political Asylum to one family, we will open our gates to ALL families that wanna come to America to home school!

Immigration laws be damned, just open the gates and let everyone in at our expense!

And if their language creates an issue for them getting work, let's give them Social Security, food stamps, medical and everything else that the American Dream consists of!

Hell, we already have illegals getting social security -- While our own citizens struggle to get it even after paying into it their whole lives!

You can't make an 'exception' for one foreign family. Now we have to let the rest in, if they claim they want to "home school."

reply to post by LostNemesis


I think the hope is that this will put pressure on the German government to ease up on restrictions for homeschooling families.

Although, if a family seeks asylum on these grounds, I hope the imigration courts will force them to PROOVE the persecution before allowing them asylum.

Awesome, so I can use this precedent to justify the fact I will homeschool my kids.

Why would I let my kids go to the public rape factory and get molested and bullied all day? Oh and it happens ALL the time...

Look my kid is 5 years old, and can do division and multiplication now. She can write a letter too. It's not perfect, but its extremely good, she gets like 80% correct and is improving every day. *I didnt know division till 4th grade...*

Also, people will reply to me "But kids need social skills too!" And this is the weakest excuse that proves Public School has nothing to do with Academics.

Yeah this is why there is home school meet up groups and family members and neighbors. So the kids can get to play with other kids.

However I noticed almost all these kids are total bullies, ignorant, uneducated, and simply mean spirited. Not always but like 75% of the time they are.

My kids will be reading Carl Sagan and Michio Kaku by age 10, if I let the public school system have them, they would become mindless slaves happy to work at Walmart for the rest of their lives.

Not going to happen. I care about my kids. They will be taught correctly.

Science, Religion, Math, you name it I'll be covering it.

English grammar and such is my wife's job though since I suck at that one.

They are just sooo oppressive and fascist at public school these days. They talk bad on patriots and they HATE the Constitution.


My German ancestors left Germany for political freedom too. Coincidence?

Judge Burman rocks!

I hate to put it this way, but our government seems to want us to persecute against every country in the world that does not live exactly as we do.

Not only will we invade people that are "different" than us, but now we are allowing political asylum for people of countries with different educational systems/laws....

It feels really silly even suspecting this.

reply to post by LostNemesis


I don't care about that really. Although you make a good point about illegal immigration by using these sneaky tactics. We should not let all these people in...I agree...But I live here already and was born here.

I am happy that they did this because it means that they HAVE to let me home school my kids now.

They can't just turn around and force my American kids into the public blender now, they just let some random Germans in for this very reason.

I will be using this court case in my favor as precedent.

reply to post by FortAnthem

Judge Burman said in his decision that, "The rights being violated here are basic human rights that no country has a right to violate."

Irony.

New York Parents arrested for failing to register their homeschooled students
Homeschooling Parents arrested for 'child endangerment'
Tennesee mother arrested for violating compulsory attendance law

Originally posted by LordBucket
reply to post by FortAnthem

 

Judge Burman said in his decision that, "The rights being violated here are basic human rights that no country has a right to violate."

Irony.

New York Parents arrested for failing to register their homeschooled students
Homeschooling Parents arrested for 'child endangerment'
Tennesee mother arrested for violating compulsory attendance law

Welcome to the land of the free, or was that the home of the enslaved?

Originally posted by FortAnthem
...
I wonder how this will effect US - Greman relations.
...

In no way whatsoever. Germans will raise a collective eyebrow and move on.

Originally posted by muzzleflash
...
My German ancestors left Germany for political freedom too. Coincidence?...

Yes. Because this is under no circumstances a question of "political freedom", or freedom at all. The rights of these people were in no way infringed. What happened was that they rebelled against laws put in place to protect their CHILDRENS freedoms.