Earlier this year, it was widely reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was trying to get its hands on $20 million worth of electric shock gloves — discreet compliance devices designed to do exactly what it sounds like: electrocute anybody who gets in their way.
Now, it seems ICE is trying to add to the arsenal of dystopian techno-gadgetry, through the procurement of AI-integrated robot dogs.
That’s according to ABC News, which viewed a federal procurement notice showing ICE is planning to spend up to $2 million to procure a number of SPOT robots from Boston Dynamics.
Equipped with extendable arms and 360-degree cameras, the mechanical canines will supposedly help “support public safety and law enforcement operations by providing a remotely operated robotic capability for inspection, situational awareness, and hazard assessment in environments that may pose risks to personnel,” per the filing.
With a price tag of around $120,000 for a single SPOT unit complete with extendable arm, ICE’s budget would only secure it 16 total robodogs. This is typical of federal agencies trying out new tech, which is tested in small batches in order to probe the long-term viability of a given toy.
For ICE, the dogs could also serve as the centerpiece of some blistering new propaganda. The agency’s publicity blitz has taken an extraordinarily dark turn since Donald Trump’s return to office, with overtly violent raids on civilians being filmed and edited into vertical video content.
Technology plays a key role in this propaganda: one quick-cut hype reel shared by the Department of Homeland Security shows high-tech police gadgets interstitched with ICE enforcement footage, including drones breaking car windows, aerial video of refugees on boats, an AI-targeting HUD, and for a split second, a robot dog ascending the stairs.
In this way, ICE’s high-tech surveillance toys pull double-duty — first as tools to conduct its violent raids on immigrant communities, and then as flashy fodder for the Trump admin’s content farms.
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