Many people have heard of the Duggar family, but many may not know about their close friends, the Bates family. Like the Duggars, the Bates family has 19 children and starred on TLC’s United Bates of America before getting their show Bringing Up Bates on UPtv. This week, Gil and Kelly Bates posted on their official Instagram account that their daughter-in-law Lydia and her family were facing deportation. Lydia’s parents, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, and their children are being asked to self-deport back to Germany, where they moved from to explore their fundamentalist Christian lifestyle.
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The Romeike family are asylum seekers from Germany.
Since 2014, the family has had "deferred action" status, which basically means that as long as they stay out of trouble and check in with the Department of Homeland Security, they wouldn’t have to worry about being deported. Things can change, however, after almost 10 years.
According to the Bates’ post on Instagram, "Two wks. ago, an immigration agent asked Mr. Romeike’s family to return in 4 weeks with German passports to prepare to self-deport."
They are asking their fans to sign a petition through the Home School Legal Defense Association to help keep the Romeike family in the country.
They are trying to petition the US government to allow them to stay as asylum seekers, not legal citizens.
The petition explains that "in September 2023, without any prior warning or explanation, the Romeikes were told that they are being deported, and have four weeks to obtain passports to Germany."
According to the petition, "Germany’s opposition to homeschooling has only increased in the last 10 years, making criminal charges against this family all but certain upon their return."
Homeschooling has been illegal in Germany for more than 100 years.
According to an ABC News article from 2014, the Romeikes came to the United States in 2008 from southwest Germany after the government threatened them with legal action for homeschooling their children. Homeschooling has been banned in Germany since 1918. If a German family chooses to homeschool anyway, they face legal action in the form of losing custody of their children or fines. Before the Romeike family came to the US, they owed close to $9,000 in fines.
The Romeike family was almost deported once before.
The Romeike family was threatened with deportation in 2014 after they lost their appeal for asylum. They had initially been granted asylum by a judge in Memphis, Tennessee, who believed that the German government was restricting the family’s religious freedom by not allowing them to homeschool.
The Obama administration, however, overturned that decision on appeal, stating that the family's inability to homeschool did not actually constitute religious persecution but allowing the family to stay nonetheless.
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Many of the Bates family's followers have concerns.
Although many of the Bates family’s Instagram followers were willing to share and sign the petition, others made sure to let their feelings be known.
"People complaining about the amount of illegal immigrants then complaining when some are getting sent back. Can’t have it all ways," one person commented.
"I’ll gladly sign! But, in exchange, I want you to use your platform to call for asylum for those at the southern border," wrote another commenter.
"What’s your opinion of families from other countries who are facing this same hardship? Should they be granted the same exception?" another person asked.
People on Reddit are tearing them apart.
Many followers are pointing out the hypocrisy of the situation on Reddit, along with Trace's questionable beliefs.
"They think they are entitled to asylum because they couldn’t HOME SCHOOL but support candidates who won’t accept asylum seekers from war torn countries who at risk of DEATH. I wish that the lack of Christian kindness and epic hypocrisy was surprising but with these folks it’s just not," one person commented.
"Anyone else not feeling sorry for Lydia and Trace right now? I hope all of this is making the entire Bates family rethink their disgusting beliefs about how they view undocumented immigrants," another person wrote. "So many families have been or are in the same situation as the Romeikes and yet it’s only 'not fair' when it happens to someone they care about."
