Feds move to deport homeschool family even as illegal immigration breaks new records

This week, reports broke that the federal government is moving to deport a law-abiding homeschool family despite doing very little to combat record-high illegal immigration on the U.S. southern border.

In 2008, the Romeike family fled to Tennessee from Germany after German government officials fined them for homeschooling their children. According to HSLDA, “German law… does not permit homeschooling based on the religious or pedagogical convictions of parents; it is allowed only for medical reasons, and even then is rarely permitted.” Court documents show the Romeikes were fined $9,000 for attempting to violate this law, which eventually prompted them to flee the country.

"Our oldest children were in school in the German public schools, and their personality literally changed," said Mr. Romeike, a Christian. "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."

The family’s application for asylum was initially granted by an immigration judge, but later struck down by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the family had not “shown that Germany's enforcement of its general school-attendance law amounts to persecution against them.”

Despite this, the family was informed that their stay in the U.S. would be permitted indefinitely. Since then, according to the family’s attorney, Kevin Boden, the Romeikes have continued to live in the U.S. “with the approval of the U.S. government, but without permanent residency or citizenship status."

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Now, reports from Fox News show that the family faces abrupt deportation back to Germany fifteen years after fleeing, despite two of their kids being born here and at least two being married to U.S. citizens.

“The Romeike family… entered the country lawfully,” Boden pointed out. “They’ve been here lawfully for 15 years. They want to stay here lawfully, and there’s a way to make that happen…. The Biden Administration can make that happen. The agencies can make that happen. And we’re asking them to simply do just that.”

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Ironically, as Pete Hegseth pointed out in an interview with the Romeikes, “We’re seeing record numbers of illegals race across our southern border, most of which are loosely claiming some sort of need for asylum,” and the federal government seems uninterested in deporting any of them. According to Reuters, “U.S. border authorities encountered more than 142,000 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in the first half of September… a tally on pace to match or even surpass previous monthly highs.” Despite this categorical crisis, however, the federal government has instead prioritized deporting a law-abiding, Christian homeschool family that has lived here for over 15 years.

This shameful decision betrays Washington’s lopsided priorities—putting its woke agenda ahead of the good of the American people. To rein in the federal government and keep it accountable, sign the Convention of States petition below and join us in the fight against federal overreach.