In the middle of the night on Wednesday, June 18, someone rings the doorbell of a Georgian family in Brigachtal. The police ask the parents to get themselves and their children ready to leave within an hour. The oldest son, 19 years old, suffering from advanced muscular dystrophy, is taken without medical assistance and without his electric wheelchair. The decision underlying this operation had been emailed to the family only a few hours earlier: The regional authority in Karlsruhe had revoked their tolerated stay for vocational training on the evening of June 17. The family had lived in Brigachtal for four years - the daughter was in vocational training, the younger son attended school, the father spoke German, and the mother was involved in local community life. The Konstanz police confirmed the operation involved three vehicles - an ambulance was not provided. Later that same week, the municipality sealed the family’s apartment.
The case drew public attention primarily because two named supporters contacted the press early on. Martin Hayer, a neighbor of the family, wrote directly to Thorsten Frei, CDU Chief of the Chancellery and the constituency’s elected representative in the Bundestag. In interviews, Hayer said he was ashamed of what had happened - of how the state had treated a well-integrated family. Pastor Dominik Feigenbutz, a Protestant cleric from Villingen, also voiced strong criticism. He warned of a moral breach and pointed to the complete lack of medical care for the seriously ill young man in the destination country. So far, Thorsten Frei has issued no public response.
The case is part of a growing pattern of nighttime operations against long-term tolerated individuals - including families with children and people with serious health conditions. The tactics mirror what was seen under the Trump administration in the United States: email notifications, late-night enforcement, elimination of effective legal remedies - all technically lawful, but politically contested. There, too, it began with exceptional cases and evolved into a system. Germany is not the United States - not yet. But the similarities are becoming harder to ignore. A state that reduces people to cases eventually loses its sense of proportion - and perhaps more than that.
English 
German 
Muskeldystrophie ist eine nicht heilbare, ständig fortschreitende Erkrankung, die im schlimmsten Fall letztendlich wegen Nachlassen der Atemmuskulatur zum Ersticken führt (falls man nicht vorher an was anderem stirbt.) Ich bin selbst Dystrophikerin, mittlerweile Pflegegrad 4 und auf Hilfe und Unterstützung im Alltag im Rollstuhl angewiesen – die Vorstellung, mitten in der Nacht aus dem Schlaf geholt und ohne meine Hilfsmittel abgeschoben zu werden, in ein Land, wo ich vermutlich nicht die medizinische Betreuung bekomme, die ich brauche, ist grauenhaft, kommt einem Todesurteil gleich. Mir unverständlich, wie in einem solchen Fall abgeschoben werden kann. Wie sich diese Familie, speziell der junge Mann, gefühlt haben muß, kann ich mir sehr gut vorstellen. – Ein Alptraum!
Nachfragen werden bei den behörden nicht beantwortet, so muss also der journalistische dampfhammer walten, wenn man das weiter recherchiert hat