Using AI for Immigrant admissions and removals? A Role for Artificial Intelligence in a Politicized Immigration World by Richard Frankel

AI is the rage. Devil or god-send, who knows? Perhaps AI can improve law student admissions and faculty hiring – and perhaps immigrant admissions and removals.

Check out this contribution to the Rutgers University Law Review immigration law symposium:

A Role for Artificial Intelligence in a Politicized Immigration World by Richard Frankel, Rutgers University Law Review| Vol. 77:1333 | 2025
Abstract

Many debates about artificial intelligence boil down to one central question: who is better (or worse) at making decisions? Artificial intelligence doomsayers worry that AI will supplant human decision-making, with catastrophic consequences that render humans expendable. On the other hand, if AI can overcome human bias and nefarious intent, it holds the possibility of shielding humanity from its worst impulses.

This tension is evident in the realm of immigration policy, which for the last 100 years has revealed the frailties of human decision-making. Immigration debates prompt racial and ethnic stereotyping, reactionary proposals, and deliberate refusals to examine evidence or prioritize fact-based decisions. Introducing AI tools can add fuel to the fire. It can promote mass surveillance of noncitizens, mining social medial to find reasons to revoke visas, and perpetuate racial and ethnic bias.

While staying clear eyed about these risks, this essay suggests that immigration policymaking displays how human decision-making is so flawed that enabling greater use of AI technology--with appropriate guardrails and guiding principles--may actually help protect us from ourselves. It is possible that AI tools, which lack motivation and intent, can provide a buffer against human cruelty, implicit bias, and capacity limitations. This essay offers three principles to guide AI with respect to immigration. First, AI technology can offer independence and protection from political interference over day-to-day agency decisions. Second, given the way the current presidential administration is dismantling the federal workforce, AI tools may prove necessary for processing immigration applications and reducing backlogs. Third, AI use should be guided by the principle of affirming human dignity. In that way, AI can address situations where a noncitizen seeks the government's help while simultaneously protecting against the government's non-consensual intrusion upon individual rights, such as through expanded surveillance.