Grant Legal Status to Romeikes-Homeschool Petition

[LaterBloomer]

Regardless of your position on home schooling, I'm glad to see that others have researched the issue before agreeing to sign the petition. Time magazine had an article on this family. It appears that they had options other than coming to the USA. If I've read the article correctly, they would have been able to home-school their children in another German-speaking country, and not had to face the issue of deportation. I think that the HSLDA is trying to raise political issues rather than help this family, so I will decline to sign the petition. I appreciate your bringing the issue to my notice, however, TayTay

[Nelson1798]

There is a lot of discussion on whether or not this family warrants asylum, but how hard, truly is it to grant asylum?

[sanantone]

It kinda pains me to see the political system abusing families. Sorta the other way around, IMHO. Yes, there's many people around the world suffering, and here's a chance to take 30 seconds and sign something to help out a family. Back to basics folks, the golden rule, if you were in trouble and needed help, anything and everything other people did for you would help and be appreciated. Whether this petition ultimately will do anything, or not, none of us knows. But the time we've taken to comment or complain, is more then twice the time it would of taken to just sign it. If you disagree, I'm not saying don't reply or comment, etc. just keep it cool and realize that around the world (and in this case particularly) you're able to do things that these people can't. You have freedoms, that they don't. Would not restriction of freedom and liberty be considered persecution? That's what millions of men and women have died for over the last 2 centuries, to gain the freedom we enjoy and keep it safe. What's my point? If freedom is worth all those glorious lives, maybe it's worth our time to spend 30 seconds and help some other folks.

I'd rather spend the 30 seconds signing a petition for someone who is really in need. You're not just signing a petition. You're basically telling the president that he should grant asylum to these people ahead of others. Like I said, we can't grant asylum to everyone, so we have to make choices on who needs it the most. Some people are in danger of being imprisoned by the government no matter what they do. These people are not in that position. If I were in their position, I would feel very selfish asking for people's time and energy to help my cause when there are many other more worthy causes. When I had no money to buy food, I pawned items so that I could do so. I did not go to the food bank or ask a charity for help. I believed that help should go to the people who had absolutely no other way of getting food. I even took out a car title loan in order to pay the rent.

[sanantone]

Hi all! Sorry if this post has created some negative feelings... I just wanted to share it for those fellow homeschoolers who wanted to sign the petition or were unaware of it.

I, personally, don't think the issue is about a "family's comfortable life." The problem is that the government is saying that parents do not have the fundamental right to homeschool. The issue is to have the FREEDOM to CHOOSE your child's education, whether public, private, or at home. Even though this is a German family, this decision will set a precedence for ALL future homeschooling, in America.

I am a homeschool graduate, so I am partial to this. Everyone just has to do what they think is best!

HSLDA Chairman and founder Michael Farris, JD, LLM, argues the case at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on
April 23 and explains why this case is so important to Americans.

“When the United States government says that homeschooling is a mutable choice, it is saying that a government
can legitimately coerce you to change this choice,” Farris said. “In other words, you have no protected right to
choose what type of education your children will receive. We should understand that in these arguments,
something very concerning is being said about the liberties of all Americans.”
Source: http://www.hslda.org/legal/cases/romeike...130326.pdf

The Romeikes said that they were being persecuted for their religion. That's probably where they lost support. The government couldn't find any evidence that they were being persecuted for their religion. There is nothing in the Bible that says that your children should be homeschooled. However, the Bible does say that you should obey the laws of the land. Homeschooling is mostly a state issue. If homeschooling is not a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution (and it's not just like healthcare is not a right and that's a life and death situation), then that is something each state should take up. There are a lot of arguments one can make under the pursuit of happiness argument. One could say that taxes get in the way of their pursuit of happiness. One could say that laws against the use of marijuana get in their way of pursuit of happiness, especially when it comes to medical issues.

[TayTay]

The subject of homeschooling is dear to my heart, so I am an adamant supporter of the rights of homeschoolers. (As most people are, to topics that mean something to them.) We will have to agree to disagree and leave it as that!

[sanantone]

That is fine. We all have our priorities.

[EI2HCB]

This is about asylum in the United States. As a Naturalised Citizen I understand this system yet the E.U is a 27 member state and so if you are persecuted in Germany which is possible because the German state does things differently than everywhere else. A German citizen can live in Romania and be able to home school their children or even in Ireland without persecution it's a right under the Irish constitution. Deporting a family is traumatic for them but lets be real if they can survive in the U.S.A as homeschoolers they could if they so wished do so across the European Union this means as E.U Citizens there is no ongoing threat to them so they don't qualify for asylum since they have liberty to move within the EU to a more favourable juristiction. These issues usually arise over economics, they can make more cash in the U.S.A than if the lived in a free nation like Ireland or Romania or Slovakia. Should the German government change its attitude to homeschoolers if we believe this then write to you local German embassy or consulate and let them know that you disapprove of their policies, lets not change our U.S policies for a single State within a federation that allows freedoms of all sorts.

[Jonathan Whatley]

I've been looking at an article on the Romeikes from the HSLDA magazine The Home School Court Report in 2010. The article is by HSLDA staff attorney Michael P. Donnelly. Quoting:

HSLDA first learned of and reported on the Romeikes’ case in late 2006. The following year, I (Mike Donnelly) travelled to Germany for a homeschool conference. In my presentation at the conference, I spoke about pluralism and encouraged the families to stay strong in their fight for freedom. I also shared the history of homeschooling in the United States, where the early years hadn’t been so different from what German homeschoolers were currently dealing with.

One of the families I met on that trip kept me informed about the Romeikes’ situation, and asked me to get in touch with Uwe and Hanne to advise and encourage them. When I called Uwe, I learned that he was being fined thousands of dollars and that the authorities were preparing to bring an action to put a lien on his home for the payment of the fines. I knew that this was only a starting point and that it was very likely that more severe action would eventually be taken. He told me that he and Hanne thought that they might have to leave Germany.

“Mike Donnelly told me that if we decided to leave Germany and come to the United States, HSLDA would support us in a claim for political asylum,” remembers Uwe. “He said it would be a novel case and that there was no telling how it might turn out. Hanne and I thought it over. We could go to other places in Europe, but America, as we found out, had the freest laws for homeschoolers.”

Seeking Refuge in the Land of Liberty: The Romeikes' Journey (Michael P. Donnelly, The Home School Court Report, March/April 2010)

So according to a house magazine from the HSLDA, the Romeikes were considering normal-status immigration to a safe country in Europe very friendly to homeschooling. But the HSLDA came in and urged them to seek political asylum in the US. They cautioned the Romeikes, says Uwe Romeike, this was "a novel case" and "there was no telling how it might turn out."

In principle, I'm very sympathetic to the concept of bringing a test case to set a precedent on a rights issue.

I feel some discomfort with the way this has played out, especially with the role of the HSLDA.

Apparently urged on by the HSLDA, a family both rejected normal-status immigration to safe countries in Europe, and also chose against applying to come to the U.S. as normal-status immigrants.

Instead, the Romeikes filed for refugee status on grounds that the HSLDA agreed from their first contact with the family in Germany – apparently circa 2007, during the Bush administration – were speculative and risked rejection. Now that, just so, the Romeikes' claim for refugee status is facing an appeal and risks rejection, the HSLDA is shocked! "The U.S. Government wants to deport this homeschool family."

I support a right to homeschool, and from the little I've seen so far about this strict German law against homeschooling, it does seem to me to be seriously wrong.