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German Schools – Honduran Prisons Really About the Same

Mar 3, 2010
By Ezra.
Politics & Current Events

A German family applied for (and got) emergency political asylum in the US on the basis of wanting to homeschool their kids. That’s right, asylum – normally reserved for people who are being persecuted, fleeing dictators or likely to be killed in their home country.

The Romeike family want to home school their children, which is apparently illegal in Germany. Fine. Really, this post has nothing to do with home schooling. The issue here, is one of scale. How about instead of applying for political asylum you move? Home schooling is perfectly fine in neighboring Austria, and if you are (as you say) really concerned about the impact of culture on your kids Austria would be far less jarring in every way to them.

Apparently, the Romeike’s were contacted by a US home school advocacy group, and encouraged to seek asylum here. Hmm. That doesn’t seem political at all. I wonder how the religious right would feel if a Salvadoran family applied for asylum under the same pretense? I guarantee you that are inherently racist immigration policies would make it a lot more difficult than it was for the German family. Or how about a gay man legally married in the US? Nope, but let the German family in right away.

The bottom line is that this is a gross misuse of the political asylum statutes. They should be used for people who are in genuine danger, and who do not have the means to extricate themselves from this danger, not for a family that could easily have moved to several Euro countries that are ok with home schooling instead of engaging in political grandstanding.

I’ll end with the good news that the US will likely appeal the asylum, and hopefully the family will have their asylum revoked, and be forced to return to the tyrannical regime they fled, the German school district.

Last 5 posts by Ezra

5 Comments
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5 Comments

  1. Rougman  •  Mar 3, 2010 @8:54 pm

    Well, as a member of the religious right I gotta tell you that I support neither the German family nor the Salvadoran family getting into the country under these pretenses.

    Next?

  2. Windypundit  •  Mar 4, 2010 @1:44 pm

    This family came to the U.S. because they like it here better, and I can’t figure out why this pisses you off so much that you want to kick them out. Do you hate them because they’re immigrants? Or because they’re homeschoolers? You say that this is “a gross misuse of the political asylum statutes,” but do you really think that gaming the immigration laws is so terrible a crime?

  3. Wayne Clemons  •  Mar 4, 2010 @2:31 pm

    The ability of parents to control the education of their children is a fundamental human rights issue. Especially when the issue is whether the state can force your children to be educated in government schools. And especially when that state is Germany.

    After all, we all know who said “He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.”

    That’s right, this post just got Godwined.

    I mean that your being like Hitler.

  4. Patrick  •  Mar 4, 2010 @2:32 pm

    I don’t see any inconsistency between supporting broader legal immigration (as Ezra does) and opposing a gross misuse of laws presently on the books (which I agree this is), nor with the observation that INS and ICE frequently apply the law in a racist fashion. These people should be sent back to Germany.

  5. Ezra  •  Mar 4, 2010 @2:45 pm

    Again, my problem isn’t with home schooling per se (although I think it’s a bad idea, much like being a fan of Creed it’s a personal choice..) it’s with this family abusing the political asylum statutes. Political asylum is for people with no other recourse.

    Again, you can’t tell me that there is any reason the German family should have been let in, and the Brazilian man not let in. Other than blatant racism of course.

    Sigh, I just noticed that once again Patrick said everything I should have said better & faster.

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