Amritha R Warrier & AI4Media / Better Images of AI / tic tac toe / CC-BY 4.0In late July, Germany's cabinet quietly approved a draft law that would create a broad legal basis for using artificial intelligence in visa, residence, and asylum procedures. The bill, known as the KI-Migrationsverwaltungsgesetz (KIMVG, or AI Migration Administration Act), would allow authorities to process personal data to develop, train and test AI systems, introduce AI-assisted procedural monitoring, and do an automated cross-checking of applicants' statements against publicly available internet sources.The German government says the law is needed to address limited administrative resources and to improve the efficiency, quality, and security of migration procedures. Civil society groups, however, have identified legal gaps, what they describe as overly broad powers granted to authorities, and a long list of unanswered questions about how the systems would work in practice. In this article, we unpack those questions and highlight the need for a more inclusive deliberation of AI in migration and asylum administration.What the bill would doThe German cabinet adopted the draft KIMVG on July 29. The proposed bill would amend the country's Asylum Act and Residence Act to allow AI use in three main ways. First, it introduces “automated procedural monitoring,” in which completed cases would be analyzed using AI to identify structural decision-making patterns and opportunities for standardization and…

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