ICE is buying Boston Dynamics robot dogs. Los primos no van a necesitar estos bichos
ICE is shopping for robot dogs from Boston Dynamics — the four-legged machines that trot through warehouses and inspect industrial sites. The agency says they'll improve officer safety, which is the kind of line you hear when you're buying expensive toys. The actual plan is to put these things in detention centers and border operations, where they'll patrol corridors and run sensors instead of people.
Boston Dynamics makes the Spot. They cost around $75,000 each. The agency is planning to spend millions on them. That's the kind of money that could fund a lot of border patrol agents, a lot of translators, a lot of legal aid. Instead it's going to machines that can't read a person's body language and can't tell the difference between a scared kid and a threat.
The bigger story here is the creep of surveillance tech into immigration enforcement. These robots carry cameras, microphones, thermal sensors. They're connected. They send data back to servers. When the feds are buying them, they're not just looking for a new tool — they're building an infrastructure. And the people who end up in their sights are Brown and Black communities.
Why this matters for us: When the government spends millions on robot dogs, it's betting that a machine can do a better job watching our families than a human with a pulse. That's not safety. That's a line in the dirt.
“The agency says they'll improve officer safety. That's the kind of line you hear when you're buying expensive toys.”