‘The Romeikes Can Stay!!!’: Shocking 180 in the Case of German Home-Schooling Family

The Blaze ^ | Mar. 4, 2014 | Erica Ritz

[Mrs. Don-o]

On Tuesday, the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) announced a drastic turnaround on the part of the federal government: The German Romeike family, which sought asylum in the United States to home-school their children, will now be allowed to stay in America.

“The Romeikes can stay!!!” the HSLDA announced on its Facebook page.

Just one day ago, the Romeikes thought they would be forced to return to Germany, where the state could take custody of their children because of their decision to home-school. At a minimum, they would face increasingly harsh fines for violating Germany’s compulsory attendance law.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike have been fighting to remain in the United States since 2008, when they fled to Tennessee, but the Supreme Court declined to hear their appeal for asylum on Monday.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike (in the center) and their six children stand with Michael Farris and other members of their legal team (Photo Credit: Home School Legal Defense Association) ion)

A post on the HSLDA’s Facebook wall signed by the organization’s chairman explains the change:

"Today, a Supervisor with the Department of Homeland Security called a member of our legal team to inform us that the Romeike family has been granted “indefinite deferred status”. This means that the Romeikes can stay in the United States permanently (unless they are convicted of a crime, etc.)

"This is an incredible victory that can only be credited to our Almighty God.

"We also want to thank those of who spoke up on this issue–including that long ago White House petition. We believe that the public outcry made this possible while God delivered the victory.

"This is an amazing turnaround in 24 hours. Praise the Lord.

"Proverbs 21: 1 The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord, He guides it wherever He pleases."

~~Michael Farris

The family has claimed Germany’s laws violate international human rights standards, but the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded last year that U.S. law does not grant asylum to “every victim of unfair treatment.”

When the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, the HSLDA said the “last judicial hope for the family” had been exhausted. The 24-hour turnaround by the U.S. legal system was highly unexpected.

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Programming note: Family attorney Michael Farris will be on TheBlaze TV’s “The Glenn Beck Program” at 5 p.m. ET to discuss the breaking details of this case.

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[Mrs. Don-o]

"Today, a Supervisor with the Department of Homeland Security called a member of our legal team ..."

Thank God for this unnamed DHS Supervisor. Thank God for the HSLDA. Thank God, period.

I believe don-o and I would gave gone to Morristown with as many supporters as we could find, to lay down in the road to stop this deportation.

I would not be surprised if that vicious apparatchik Eric Holder decided to get this Supervisor canned, or frame the Romeike on some kind of false charges. Criminal stuff can be remotely planted on people's computers. Think of the possibilities: sedition, illegal weapons trafficking, child porn.

We've got to keep an eye on this: I have a strong feeling it's not over.

[Mrs. Don-o]

By the way, the baby was definitely born here. I saw a group picture of Michael Harris with the Romeike family when Hannelore was heavily pregnant. Now she’s got this baby-— Yay, made in the USA.

[WayneS]

This is good news.

I hope the Supervisor in question has not put himself in any danger from others at DHS or DO[I]j.

[MrB]

PRAISE

THE

LORD!

[Don Corleone]

This STILL the Land of the Free or the want to be FREE. I don’t see too many people emigrating to the old USSR, Cuba or Venezuela. As soon as we throw the Marxists out (With extreme prejudice I hope) we can start to rebuild what they have destroyed over the last 100 years.

[Graewoulf]

Vilkommen!

[apillar]

I guess someone in the Whitehouse finally took a poll and realized that it didn't look to good calling for unconditional amnesty for every dreg of Mexican society that manages to sneak across the border, but publicly putting the screws to this family who followed all the laws to come here.

[Iron Munro]

Nice looking family.

Sounds as if they have solid values and will be a worthy addition to the country.

[thejokker]

Sometimes the Good Guys win one!!

[miss marmelstein]

Hope, hope, hope, they all grow up to fight the enemies of America! Wilkommen, indeed.

[Tax-chick]

Or made in Germany and delivered in the USA; I haven’t followed the timeline closely.

But *whatever*! Someone like me, who’s on the side of Mexicans and Salvadorans and ... well, you seem to have had some drug involvement and all back in Sinaloa, from your tattoos, but it looks like you’re a sincere Christian now ...

Well, where was I going? Oh, we need more committed German Baptists, and fewer Eric Holders. I’d move Salvadorans into my house, say they’re my kids, and defy the Justice Department. (”Their grandfather was Cherokee. What are you, a racist?!?”) Germans would be easy.

[SoFloFreeper]

I posted this story about an hour ago, different source, and it got knocked over to the “chit chat” section of FR.

What gives?

[MrB]

They’re Christian and exercise Christian values in their lives by homeschooling,

and that’s why Obama, Holder, and Jarrett hate them so.

[aumrl]

that’s a fine idea

[Blackyce]

They could have granted these poor folks asylum long ago, in fact the courts did just that. The administration went out of their way to get their asylum overturned and put them through hell for three years, taking their attempts to deport them all the way to the supreme court. These people lose at the supreme court and then the next day the administration grants them deferred action so they can help them put a conservative face on the administrative abuse of power they’re using to informally implement immigration reform.

I’m happy for the family, but don’t freepers understand when they’re being played?

[Wallace T.]

On April 22, 2000, the Clinton Administration deported Elian Gonzalez, a minor refugee, from the Miami area back to his native Cuba at gunpoint. A little over six months later, Al Gore lost Florida by an extremely narrow margin. Had the Cuban-American community in South Florida not been infuriated by the deportation, Gore might well have won cleanly in the Sunshine State without the "hanging chad" controversy. Had he won Florida, Gore would have become President.

By not making the German homeschooling family martyrs to liberal overreach, the Obama Administration is avoiding the fatal mistake the Clinton Administration made 14 years ago.

[ConservativeMan55]

YEP!

[don-o]

I posted this story about an hour ago, different source, and it got knocked over to the “chit chat” section of FR. What gives?

Did you appeal via private message? I get some results sometime when I do that.

[AdSimp]

“indefinite deferred status”

I would be careful about getting my hopes up. Let’s see after a few months.

[Lurking Libertarian]

I would not be surprised if that vicious apparatchik Eric Holder decided to get this Supervisor canned, or frame the Romeike on some kind of false charges. Criminal stuff can be remotely planted on people's computers. Think of the possibilities: sedition, illegal weapons trafficking, child porn. We've got to keep an eye on this: I have a strong feeling it's not over.

No way a DHS bureaucrat reversed himself, on his own, the day after the Supreme Court said it was denying cert.; this had to come straight from Holder or the White House.

The Government got what it wanted: a legal precedent that homeschooling is not an automatic entry to the US. Having established that precedent, the Government didn't want the bad publicity that would come from deporting this family.

They couldn't have reversed themselves before SCOTUS ruled, because that would have mooted the case. But they were obviously ready to do this and waiting for the Court to rule.