ICE Goes Full RoboCop With $2 Million Mechanical Mutts
ICE plans to spend a pretty penny to supplement its force with robotic “dogs” for immigration enforcement operations.
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The controversial agency could spend up to $2 million to acquire the Boston Dynamics robots, according to NBC News.
The doglike robots, outfitted with cameras and chemical detection sensors, will be used to scout buildings and areas for ICE officers and help officers determine whether it is safe to enter, an official told the outlet. They said the robots would not be used to make arrests.
An ICE spokesperson told the Daily Beast in a statement that the “robot platform provides law enforcement officers with an additional tool to safely assess potentially dangerous situations before placing personnel or the public at risk.”
“It can provide real-time situational awareness in hazardous, confined, or tactically uncertain environments, allowing officers to make more informed decisions and, when possible, resolve incidents without immediately introducing personnel into a dangerous area. This technology does not replace law enforcement officers or their judgment—it simply provides another option to help protect officers and the communities they serve,” the spokesperson added.
A Boston Dynamics spokesperson told the Daily Beast in a statement that the company “sells to many government agencies and public safety organizations” and that “any attempted weaponization of Boston Dynamics’ robots is strictly prohibited.”
“We will not authorize nor partner with those who wish to use our robots as weapons or autonomous targeting systems,” the company’s website reads. “If our products are being used for harm, we will take appropriate measures to mitigate that misuse.”
Boston Dynamics’ Spot model robot can perform “hazardous gas detection, unexploded ordnance inspection, suspicious package investigation, search and rescue, subterranean or confined space exploration, and structural assessments following fires, disaster events, and other hazards,” the spokesperson said.
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Doglike robots aren’t new to law enforcement.
A Boston Dynamics robot known as “Roscoe” was shot multiple times during a standoff while it was being used by Massachusetts State Police in 2024, according to NBC Boston.
ICE also paid $78,000 in September for a “Mini-CALIBER tactical robot” from ICOR Technology Inc. to augment the agency’s “office of firearms and tactical programs,” according to a federal funding document.
After Congress approved a nearly $70 billion immigration-enforcement package in June—including approximately $38.5 billion for ICE—the agency began looking to bolster its operations with new technology.
Last week, ICE purchased 6,000 pairs of gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks, according to the Associated Press. The agency awarded a $16.7 million no-bid contract to Compliant Technologies for the G.L.O.V.E.—which stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter.
Civil rights advocates and Democratic members of Congress alike have questioned the need for such equipment and emphasized the agency’s track record of excessive force.
“ICE spent the last year showing this country they are too quick to use force. Now they will be able to deploy electric shocks with the slight push of a button that maybe nobody else can see them do,” said Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, a deputy project director on policing at the American Civil Liberties Union. “Introducing gloves that can so easily be used to deliver terrible pain in encounters is a recipe for harm to the public.”
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