A German home-school family will be allowed to stay in the United States permanently, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday.
The U.S. Supreme Court had refused to hear Uwe and Hannelore Romeike's bid for asylum after they fled Germany over their choice to home school their children.
Today, the DHS announced the family has been granted indefinite deferred action status. That means that the Romeikes can stay in the United States permanently unless they commit a crime or violate the terms of their status.
"This is hugely great news," Attorney Michael Donnelly, with the Home School Legal Defense Association, said.
In 2008, the Romeike family fled Germany because the state threatened to take their children away if they did not enroll in public school.
In 2013, the Justice Department argued in the Romeike case that home schooling is not a fundamental human right. The department filed suit to have them sent back to Germany.
Update: Lindsay Howard offers a suspicious (and perhaps accurate?) evaluation of the DHS's move and issues an admonishment:
I suspect this was done for political expediency. The Obama Administration really doesn’t care about one more homeschooling family in the U.S. They just wanted to use the Romeikes to make legal precedent. So, after they win in court, set the precedent that homsechooling is not a parental right (and that refusing to allow homeschooling is not persecution), they act magnanimous and allow the Romeikes to stay to get the public to shut up and forget about the whole thing. We need to be sure we DON’T forget about it. We need to keep working to ensure that our government recognizes the rights of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children.