U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the tip of the spear in President Donald Trump’s racist anti-immigrant crackdown, is expanding its arsenal of dystopian weaponry.

On the heels of recent reporting about ICE procuring gloves that can emit electric shocks during arrests, the agency also is apparently looking to deploy robot dogs from a Boston-area company known for sharing its disturbing demonstrations online. 

Some companies have sought to sever ties with the Trump administration amid its deadly crackdown — but Boston Dynamics is taking the opposite route.

According to Boston’s WCVB-TV: 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is set to deploy a new tool in its mass deportation campaign: a fleet of “robot dogs” that were made in Massachusetts. The Spot robots were created by Boston Dynamics and will be used in operations deemed unsafe for human agents, like hazardous gas detection, search and rescue, as well as suspicious package investigations.

A Boston Dynamics spokesperson told the outlet:

“Boston Dynamics sells to many government agencies and public safety organizations and the robots are used to keep people out of harm’s way and aid first responders in assessing dangerous situations … any attempted weaponization of Boston Dynamics’ robots is strictly prohibited.”

The TV station also reported that ICE “put in a $2 million order for the robots, but it’s unclear when the agency plans to deploy them.”

Although Boston Dynamics may have an anti-weaponization policy, there’s no indication as to how the company would enforce it if federal agents misuse these robots. And even before Trump — someone who idolizes authoritarians — returned to office, these tools already had civil rights experts concerned.

Law enforcement’s use of Boston Dynamics’ robot dogs — or “Digidogs,” as they have been called — came up in my conversation with surveillance expert Albert Fox Cahn back in 2023, which centered on how dystopian tools are being unleashed on American streets.

Even an agency with a stellar reputation ought to be viewed with skepticism when it comes to such tools — and ICE’s reputation is downright putrid.

The agency’s brutal tactics have contributed to the country’s broad disapproval of Trump’s anti-immigrant crusade, with historians, legal experts and a Reagan-appointed federal judge comparing ICE agents to the Ku Klux Klan. ICE agents have been exposed using racial slurs while carrying out the crackdown. And the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE, has acted as a megaphone for white supremacist propaganda.

The potential harms that could come with such an agency acquiring robot dogs, or any other technology that can be used to infringe on civil rights, underscore why it’s important to have a Congress that acts as a check on the federal government, unlike the current GOP-led Congress — which effectively gave Trump’s authoritarian regime a blank check to fund ICE’s activities.

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