The Patriot Post® · The Wrong Kind of Asylum Seekers
When the Pilgrims came to our shores aboard the Mayflower, their primary objective was religious liberty — to worship and raise their children in the manner they saw fit, and not under the thumb of petty tyrants elsewhere. Still today, one of the fundamental rights American parents insist upon is to oversee their children’s education. Millions have chosen homeschooling for this reason.
Leftists couldn’t disagree more, and in one particular case, Team Biden is effectively using that rationale to find the one family of asylum seekers who are not welcome in America.
Literally millions of people have illegally crossed the U.S. border during Joe Biden’s intentional invasion. There is seemingly no limit to claims of asylum, and millions of illegals roam the country largely free of any worry of deportation. The Biden administration just granted blanket asylum status to 472,000 illegals from Venezuela.
Meanwhile, meet the Romeikes. Uwe and Hannelore Romeike emigrated from Germany in 2008, seeking asylum here because, as devout Christians, they wanted to homeschool their children. With rare exception, homeschooling is illegal in Germany, punishable by fines or even loss of custody. The Romeikes were fined, and when police showed up at their home to forcibly escort their children to state school, the family decided it was time to leave.
Notably, homeschooling has been illegal in Germany since the Nazis outlawed it in favor of “compulsory general education” by the state. The Nazi law “secures the education and instruction of German youth in the spirit of National Socialism.”
Evidently, post-war Germans didn’t find that law problematic enough to ditch it, and American leftists would love nothing more than to imitate it with compulsory state education here.
By the way, arguably the only philosophical difference between the National Socialists of Germany and the Democratic Socialists of modern America is that the latter mostly hate their country and want to indoctrinate our youth against it.
The Romeikes describe indoctrination that doesn’t sound all that different from American schools. “Our oldest children were in school in the German public schools, and their personality literally changed,” Uwe said. “We wanted to help them to grow up in what they believed in, and what we believe in, and not get basically indoctrinated with something we don’t want.”
A U.S. judge initially granted asylum, though that ruling was overturned in 2013. The Obama administration granted the family indefinite deferred status, and the Romeikes have lived for 15 years in East Tennessee. They routinely checked in with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Nashville.
Earlier this month, all that changed. The Romeikes were notified by Biden’s ICE that they suddenly face deportation and were given four weeks to get their affairs in order. The rationale is that because Germany’s law applies to everyone, it doesn’t count as “religious persecution.”
Now, the family has two American-born children and two adult children who married U.S. citizens. They have jobs, a church, and a community here. They have no home in Germany, they speak English, and their homeschool-educated children likely would be unemployable as the government does not recognize their diplomas. Such things work in favor of countless migrants from Latin America.
Doesn’t matter, says Compassionate Catholic Joe. Get out.
To be sure, this decision almost certainly didn’t come straight from the president or even the White House. More likely it was made by some pencil-pushing bureaucrat on a power trip.
Nevertheless, it is indicative of Biden administration priorities. Parents have no rights, and homeschool families are at best unruly and at worst white supremacists.
Indeed, we can’t shake the feeling that the Romiekes’ only sin is being a white, Christian, homeschooling family. If they were brown and having anchor babies or were here to abort rather than educate their children, they’d be welcomed by Team Biden. And that reeks of the typically rigged leftist system of two-tiered justice.
Good news update: The family has received a stay on the deportation order while Senator Marsha Blackburn and Representative Diana Harshbarger work on their behalf for a permanent solution.