Memphis, Tenn., Jan 28, 2010 / 15:55 pm
Earlier this week, a U.S. immigration court granted political asylum to a Christian family who fled their native Germany after being fined and threatened with losing custody of their children for homeschooling them.
On Tuesday, Tennessee Judge Lawrence Burman called Germany's actions with the Romeike family a violation of their human rights and “repellent to everything we believe as Americans” before passing a ruling that allowed them to stay in the U.S.
Though the ruling has not officially been made available, Judge Burman was quoted by the German newspaper Der Spiegel as saying that the family had “a well-founded fear of persecution.”
The Romeike family is being legally defended by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), which said in a Jan. 28 statement that homeschoolers are “a particular social group that the German government is trying to suppress.”