“Border partnership” | Dobrindt Ministry remains silent on US access to police data

Travelers can now use an app for US border controls (symbolic image). The responsible authorities now want to automatically query police data from partner states. Photo: AFP/GETTY/JOE RAEDLE The federal government refuses to provide any information about how it is preparing for negotiations with the USA about access to German police databases. This emerges from an answer to a question from “nd” and from the reaction to a parliamentary question from Left MP Clara Bünger.

The question was not even about specific positions, but only about what steps the ministry was taking in upcoming negotiations. These should be completed this year - otherwise Germany will be expelled from the US program for visa-free entry.

The background is the “Enhanced Border Security Partnership,” which the US government has made a new condition for the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). More than 40 countries take part in this program, whose citizens are allowed to enter the USA for up to 90 days without a visa. Anyone who refuses to join the new “partnership” risks being excluded from the VWP.

First, however, a framework agreement for the sensitive data deal must come into force, which the European Commission has now negotiated with the USA on behalf of the member states. The deadline for this is the end of 2026. Because of the urgency, a two-pronged procedure is planned: After the framework agreement has been signed by the EU states and the US government, it can be applied provisionally immediately. The democratic legitimacy with the approval of the European Parliament should then be achieved.

The federal government, like all other VWP states, must then negotiate a bilateral agreement with Washington for implementation. On the German side, the Federal Ministry of the Interior is responsible for this. This specifies which US immigration authorities will be allowed to read which police data in the future. If this also includes the controversial migration police ICE, they would probably be allowed to access the huge German Inpol file with biometric entries for more than five million people.

The deadline for this German-American agreement also runs until the end of this year. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, it has not yet been determined with which authorities and what content the federal government wants to enter into negotiations - although the bilateral agreement must be ready for signature in ten weeks. “The federal government is currently taking all the necessary steps,” is all it said in response to nd’s request. What these are remained unclear.

Clara Bünger then asked parliamentary questions about these “steps”. To this end, the Ministry of the Interior under Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) is now switching to complete secrecy: whether and which “necessary precautions” are currently being taken is part of the “core area of ​​executive responsibility”. The federal government cannot give a further answer because this would have a direct impact on its “decision-making process”.

The Foreign Ministry under Johann Wadephul (CDU), which would also have to be involved when the contract was concluded at the latest, did not even want to answer the “nd” in terms of content.

Searches by US authorities should be carried out automatically using personal data or fingerprints. If the person is found in police databases, the querying agency first receives confirmation and master data, including photos. In the second step you can request further information. The requested authority then only releases this data after a human check. Information such as political opinions, religion or health may then also be transmitted – but only if they are “particularly relevant”.

According to the US side, data access is intended primarily for identity verification and security screening of travelers during border procedures and visa applications. However, in the negotiated EU-US framework agreement, the use of the information is broader. They should also be allowed to be used to combat irregular migration, even if the authorities believe that public safety or order is at risk.

The agreement also covers the “prevention, detection and combating of serious crime and terrorist offenses”. This means that European anti-fascists, who are classified as “terrorist” and persecuted by the USA, also come onto the radar.

In the draft, which is now also available in German, the European Commission is satisfied that internal offices of the US immigration authorities will take over the monitoring - there are no agency-independent bodies that are common in the EU for this purpose in the USA. Further protective measures provided for in the framework agreement are formulated as optional provisions. The draft also does not specify specific storage periods; it only requires that the contracting parties review them annually.

According to the draft, decisions that have a significant impact on those affected may not be made exclusively via computer, although there are exceptions here too: "...unless this is permitted under the respective legal framework of the contracting parties." The use of artificial intelligence could also be permitted in the bilateral implementation agreements.

According to the draft of the EU-US framework agreement, which is now ready for signature, obligations to provide information to those affected can be restricted for reasons of “public and national security”. It is therefore difficult to check whether and how the USA also uses the data to persecute political activists.

The questioner Bünger points out that in addition to accused and suspects, German police databases also contain witnesses and victims of crimes - the US authorities could therefore also query this data. This is not only a clear violation of European data protection rules, but also "extremely dangerous given the authoritarian restructuring of the US state apparatus."

Instead of striving for a bilateral implementation agreement, the federal government must work at the EU level to ensure that the framework agreement does not come into being, explains the left-wing politician.

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