US government grants German homeschool family another year of asylum

A German Christian family who fled to America 15 years ago for the freedom to homeschool their children has been granted another year of asylum in the U.S.

An attorney for the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), which has represented the family in its efforts to gain permanent status in the U.S., announced in a press release that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement extended permission for Uwe and Hannelore Romeike and their family to remain in America for the next year.

“We are celebrating this good news and rejoicing with the Romeikes that they can continue to live together in freedom with their whole family and community in Tennessee,” said Kevin Boden, attorney and director of HSLDA International. 

As reported by HSLDA, the Romeike family came to the U.S. in 2008 after the German government responded to Uwe’s and Hannelore’s decision to homeschool their five children “by leveling fines that would eventually exceed the family’s income, forcibly removing the children from the home to take them to school, and threatening to remove the children from the home permanently.” 

“The police were knocking at the door, and one day they took the children to school, and the children were crying because the policemen took the schoolbags by force,” Uwe Romeike recounted to Germany’s state-owned broadcaster Deutsche Welle in 2009. 

Explaining her and her husband’s decision to remove their children from Germany’s public schools and educate them at home, Hannelore Romeike told the outlet, “We noticed that the school books always reflect certain values, that education cannot be neutral,” she said. “We communicate our values, the teachers communicate theirs, and if the kids are at school, we cannot have an influence on what they learn.” 

Noting the German government’s strong-arm tactics against homeschoolers, HSLDA attorney Mike Donnelly told Deutsche Welle, “We believe that homeschoolers in Germany represent a social group and so we think that they definitely have a fear of persecution because the fines [can be] anywhere from a 1,000 up to 50,000 euros. They threaten parents with custody actions by getting the family court involved and they also threaten them with prison.” 

After being in the U.S for two years the Romeikes were granted asylum in 2010, but in May 2012 the asylum was overturned by a U.S. immigration appeals board. “After another two years of legal battles to reinstate their asylum,” reported HSLDA, “the U.S. government finally granted the Romeikes ‘indefinite deferred action status’ in March 2014.” 

In the ten years since then, the Romeikes have lived much like other U.S. residents, obtaining driver’s licenses, renting and owning homes, and paying taxes. 

But in September 2023 the family was notified with no prior warning that they were going to be deported back to Germany and had only four weeks to secure their passports. When asked for an explanation, U.S. officials said only that there had been a “change of orders.” 

“It’s just shocking,” Uwe Romeike said of the sudden change thrust on his family. “After 15 years living with friends and extended family here, we feel like Americans. We don’t feel we should go back to Germany because there’s nothing for us there.” 

Ultimately, after efforts by HSLDA and a petition drive, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement delayed the family’s deportation until October 2024. 

While the latest delay guarantees the Romeikes can stay in the U.S. until late 2025, the future for the family remains uncertain. Since moving to the U.S., two of the Romeike children have become U.S. citizens, and two other children have married U.S. citizens. 

“Deportation to Germany will fracture these families, while exposing the Romeikes to renewed persecution in Germany, where homeschooling is still illegal in almost every case,” noted HSLDA in an op-ed on the case. 

“The Romeike family should be able to stay in the United States and home educate their children,” added HSLDA president Jim Mason. “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.”