Immigrants vs. Artificial Intelligence: The Human Cost of AI in Asylum Decisions

The rapid deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in immigration proceedings presents a new frontier in how governments process asylum claims and manage border security.Although AI facilitates the efficient analysis of large-scale data, it also presents significant challenges related to fairness, bias, and discrimination, with particularly acute implications for vulnerable groups, including asylum seekers. 1 These systems, such as facial recognition software and predictive algorithms, often contain intrinsic biases that disproportionately affect people of color and others from marginalized groups. 2 Relying on AI to predict asylum claim outcomes can discriminate against refugees and expose them to lifethreatening risks, including forced return to countries where they face persecution.3 There is evidence that the expansion of AI "leads to an increase in deaths by pushing migrants trying to cross illegally towards more remote and dangerous routes." 4 This issue is critical because AI's use in asylum adjudication directly affects due process rights under the U.S. Constitution and international refugee protections, including the principle of non-refoulement.In particular, U.S. courts must ensure that asylum seekers receive their constitutionally guaranteed right to due process.5 †.Jems Guirguis (he/him) is a student at the University of Minnesota Law School and the Lead Note and Comment Editor of the Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality for Volume 44.Guirguis is from Fontana, California and is interested in civil litigation and trial work.Guirguis was a Summer Associate at Lewis Brisbois and is now a Judicial Extern for the Honorable Michael