U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to acquire Boston Dynamics Spot quadruped robots in a deal valued at $1 million to $2 million, bypassing competitive bidding under a simplified procurement route for commercial off-the-shelf items2. The agency published the acquisition record on August 27 under the title "Boston Dynamics SPOT Robots Procurement" in the Department of Homeland Security's Acquisition Planning Forecast System, with a formal solicitation expected on September 43,14.
The procurement record lists the robots' intended uses as "inspection, situational awareness, and hazard assessment in environments that may pose risks to personnel"1,9. A senior DHS official told NBC News the robots would not be used to make arrests8. ICE said 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".
The record designates Fort Benning, Georgia, as the place of performance and flags the contract as firm fixed price. ICE does not intend to compete the purchase, filing it under FAR Subpart 13.5, a simplified route that exists for routine commercial items.
Boston Dynamics, a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group, said it "sells to many government agencies and public safety organizations" and that "any attempted weaponization of Boston Dynamics' robots is strictly prohibited" under its terms and conditions7,15. The company confirmed that public-safety customers already deploy Spot for hazardous gas detection, unexploded ordnance inspection, suspicious package investigation, search and rescue, subterranean exploration, and post-fire structural assessments. Spot weighs roughly 75 pounds, can traverse stairs and rough terrain, and transmits real-time data via cameras, thermal imaging, and mapping sensors.
Spot units carry a list price near $75,000 each12. Prior government users include the U.S. Secret Service, which deployed Spot for patrols at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in 20246. The Massachusetts State Police bomb squad leased a Spot unit in 2019 as a mobile remote observation device and used it in at least two operations. The New York Police Department operated a modified version called Digidog, deploying it for reconnaissance during a 2020 barricade incident and a 2021 home invasion before terminating its $94,000 lease that year. The NYPD later reacquired two units for $750,000, restricting deployment to life-threatening situations such as bomb threats.
A group of Democratic senators, led by Catherine Cortez Masto, wrote to ICE Acting Director David Venturella calling on the agency to cancel the contract and invest instead in de-escalation tools, training, and accountability.
The Spot procurement follows ICE's recent award of a $16.7 million no-bid contract to Compliant Technologies for 6,000 pairs of electric-shock gloves designated G.L.O.V.E. (Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter)13. Both purchases cleared without a competitive process. ICE's broader enforcement-technology buildout includes facial recognition, automated license-plate readers, GPS ankle monitors, smartphone monitoring, voice recognition, and body cameras.
ANALYSIS The no-competition procurement path and the Fort Benning performance site place the Spot acquisition squarely within ICE's pattern of sole-source enforcement-technology buys, mirroring the structure of the G.L.O.V.E. contract. Boston Dynamics' anti-weaponization policy creates a contractual constraint on how ICE can configure and deploy the robots, though enforcement of that policy rests with Boston Dynamics itself.
Vector Wire covered the initial Spot procurement record on August 31 ctx. The Senate opposition and no-competition procurement details represent new developments since that coverage.