You Can't Spell Persecution without Prosecution: Analyzing Romeike v. Holder to Determine if Laws of General Applicability May Ever Rise to the Level of Persecution
![handle is hein.journals/geoimlj28 and id is 701 raw text is: YOU CAN'T SPELL PERSECUTION WITHOUT
PROSECUTION: ANALYZING ROMEIKE V
HOLDER TO DETERMINE IF LAWS OF
GENERAL APPLICABILITY MAY EVER RISE
TO THE LEVEL OF PERSECUTION
MAXIM DOROSHENKO*
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION .................................... 681
II. BACKGROUND OF GERMAN EDUCATION ...................... 684
A. Brief History of German Compulsory Education ....... 684
B. Status of Contemporary German Homeschooling ........ 686
III. SEEKING ASYLUM IN THE UNITED STATES ..................... 690
A. Procedural Overview of Asylum ..................... 690
B. Brief History of Asylum Law and the Refugee Act of
1980 .......................................... 691
C. May Prosecution Under a Generally Applicable Law
Constitute Persecution? ........................... 693
IV. SHOULD THE SUPREME COURT AFFIRM THE SIXTH CIRCUIT9...... 696
V. CONCLUSION ................................................ 697
I. INTRODUCTION
A seemingly innocuous decision by a German family to home-
school their children, a violation of Germany's compulsory education
* B.S., University of Maryland, College Park, 2008; Georgetown University Law Center, J.D. expected
2015. Managing Editor, GEORGETOWN IMMIGRATION LAW JOURNAL. © 2015, Maxim Doroshenko.
1. Uwe Andreas Josef and Hannelore Romeike, along with their five children, Daniel, Lydia,
Joshua, Christian and Damaris, are citizens of Germany who resided in Bissingen in the State of
Baden-Wuerttemberg from August of 1996 to August of 2008. Oral Decision of Immigration Judge
Lawrence 0. Burman at 2, Matter of Romeike, File No. A087-368-600 et al., Exec. Office of
Immigration Review, Immigration Court (Jan. 26, 2010) (on file with author), available at http://
premium.docstoc.com/docs/146999273/ [hereinafter Decision of Immigration Judge]; Respondent's
Pre-Hearing Brief in Support of Asylum or Withholding of Removal at 4, Matter of Romeike, File No.
A087-368-600 et al., Exec. Office for Immigration Review, Immigration Court (2009), available at
http://www.hslda.org/hs/international/Germany/RomeikeBrief.pdf [hereinafter Respondent's Pre-
Hearing Brief].](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/geoimlj28&div=31&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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