A new proposal in Congress would make America a refuge for homeschoolers who are persecuted by its allies.
Like Germany. And Sweden. And probably others.
It is being called "groundbreaking" by Michael Donnelly, the director of global outreach for the Home School Legal Defense Association, which has fought on behalf of those families.
One battle recently waged involved the Romeike family. Uwe and Hannalore Romeike were threatened with fines, jail time and loss of custody of their children had they remained in Germany and continued homeschooling. They made the choice because of teaching in public schools on homosexuality, abortion and other issues that violated the family's Christian faith.
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They fled to the U.S. and sought asylum, only to be turned away by the Obama administration.
Advocates for homeschooling at the time warned the underlying legal precedent in the Romeike family's case suggests that the government always knows best what education is appropriate for children and can require them to attend a school that violates their religious beliefs.
Even in America.
The new bill is H.R. 1153, the Asylum Reform and Border Protection Act of 2015, and would make it possible for families who are treated harshly over homeschooling to find refuge in the United States.
A vote is scheduled in the House Judiciary Committee sometime this week.
Donnelly said, "A country that bans homeschooling is violating the basic human rights of their citizens. It makes me proud that our Congress is willing to make a statement like this – that this right should be recognized and protected. I think this bill is going to kickstart serious discussion among Germans and policy makers in other countries, too. What are they going to say when hundreds of families start seeking asylum in the United States fleeing this kind of harsh treatment?"
The idea comes from Reps. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, Daniel Webster of Florida and Robert Goodlatte of Virginia, all Republicans. The HSLDA reported they have include "specific language that would allow up to 500 grants of asylum to families fleeing homeschool persecution."
The Romeike family, which is staying in the U.S. because the Obama administration eventually decided to defer their prosecution, would be able to reopen their case, the HSLDA said.
The bill explicitly refers to homeschooling as a particular social group and "specifies that a person is 'deemed' to be eligible for asylum if he or she is persecuted for homeschooling or if the person resists anti-homeschooling laws in his country of origin."
HSLDA chairman Michael Farris argued the Romeikes' case before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and said, "No one should be forced to flee their homeland in order to homeschool. But that is what the Romeikes and scores of other families have had to do in order to escape crushing fines, criminal penalties and even the seizure of their children in countries like Germany and Sweden. Homeschooling is no threat to free societies, and I applaud the Congress for taking action so that families like the Romeikes and others who experience harsh treatment may find refuge and legal status in the land of the free."
HSLDA even now is fighting on behalf of several families from Sweden and Germany in their cases before the European Court of Human Rights over homeschooling.
WND reported extensively on the Romeike case, whose members eventually stayed in the U.S. on a decision of the Department of Homeland Security.
After an immigration judge granted the family asylum in the U.S. over Germany's persecution, the Obama administration pursued the case to the appeals level until it got the ruling it wanted, which would have sent the family back to the persecution in Germany. The U.S. Supreme Court justices then failed to affirm the asylum decision.
Then DHS said it would put the case on a deferred status, at least for now.
The Obama administration relied on a decision by Germany's Federal Constitutional Court in the American case.
That foreign court found: "The general public has a justified interest in counteracting the development of religiously or philosophically motivated 'parallel societies' and in integrating minorities in this area. Integration does not only require that the majority of the population does not exclude religious or ideological minorities, but, in fact, that these minorities do not segregate themselves and that they do not close themselves off to a dialogue with dissenters and people of other beliefs. Dialogue with such minorities is an enrichment for an open pluralistic society. The learning and practicing of this in the sense of experienced tolerance is an important lesson right from the elementary school stage. The presence of a broad spectrum of convictions in a classroom can sustainably develop the ability of all pupils in being tolerant and exercising the dialogue that is a basic requirement of democratic decision-making process."
WND commentator Ambassador Alan Keyes wrote: "It's telling that Obama and [Attorney General Eric] Holder held out against the Romeike family's plea for asylum until, with the passive-aggressive support of the U.S. Supreme Court, they had established a legal precedent upholding the administration's lawless view that an unalienable right of the natural family (rooted in the parents' obligation conscientiously to care for the upbringing of their children) is a 'mutable choice' government is not bound to respect."
WND Editor and CEO Joseph Farah wrote that people need to understand "the Romeikes are victims of a Nazi-era law that has never been overturned."
"The 1938 law passed under the leadership of Adolf Hitler eliminated exemptions that would provide an open door for homeschoolers under the nation's compulsory education laws."
It was in 1937 when Hitler himself said: "The youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of inoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing."
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