--- title: "Boston Dynamics Employees Petition to Block Robot Dog Sale to ICE" description: "The $1.3 million contract sends four modified Spot robots to ICE; the company says they will not be used as weapons." author: "rews desk" published: 2026-10-26T18:50:41Z modified: 2026-10-26T23:24:05Z url: https://rews.cc/a/boston-dynamics-employees-petition-to-block-robot-dog-sale-t-891639 language: en tags: ["ai", "robots", "ice", "boston-dynamics", "deportation", "tech"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Boston Dynamics Employees Petition to Block Robot Dog Sale to ICE *The $1.3 million contract sends four modified Spot robots to ICE; the company says they will not be used as weapons.* By rews desk · October 26, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/boston-dynamics-employees-petition-to-block-robot-dog-sale-t-891639 ## In brief - More than 300 Boston Dynamics workers, of about 1,400, petitioned executives to cancel the ICE robot sale - DHS awarded Radeco $1.3 million on Sept. 25 for four Spot robots modified as the Cerberus platform - Executives stood by the deal and said the robots would not be weaponized - The petition cited an ICE raid that detained 475 mostly South Korean workers at Hyundai’s Georgia plant - Workers warned the deal would hurt hiring as the company plans a $100 million facility and 1,250 jobs More than 300 employees at Boston Dynamics have petitioned the robotics company’s executives to halt a sale of its Spot robot dogs to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, [Ars Technica reported](https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/boston-dynamics-employees-want-to-block-sale-of-robot-dogs-to-ice/) on Monday. The employees sent their letter, with more than 300 signatures, about half of them anonymous, to executives in early September and shared copies with The Boston Globe and the public radio station WBUR. Boston Dynamics employs roughly 1,400 people. Executives are standing by the deal, saying the robots will not be weaponized. The contract behind the fight came on Sept. 25, when the Department of Homeland Security awarded $1.3 million to Radeco, a Connecticut company, to supply ICE with four Spot robots modified into a platform it markets as Cerberus, [a deal first reported last month](https://rews.cc/a/ice-buys-boston-dynamics-based-robot-dogs-in-1-3-million-dea-242967). The machines carry an oxygen sensor meant to check that air in confined spaces like tunnels is breathable, a camera with 30-times zoom, 360-degree cameras and infrared thermal imaging, plus an optional robotic arm that can open doors and manipulate objects. The contract describes the robots as built to “detect radiation, toxic gas leaks and explosive threats in urban environments or disaster zones” and to run “repeatable autonomous missions with minimal human intervention.” The purchase is meant to support Homeland Security Task Forces conducting “counter-illicit cross-border tunnel operations” and dismantling smuggling networks run by “criminal cartels, foreign gangs and transnational criminal organizations.” “Many of us have gotten messages from friends and family, asking us in disbelief and horror if this news is true, and how we can live with ourselves if it is,” the petition reads. “The risk for Boston Dynamics is simply too great to continue with this deal.” The signers describe themselves as people who normally “love showing off what we do to our friends, family and the world.” “Spot robots are tools that help keep people out of harm’s way,” a Boston Dynamics spokesperson said in a statement to Ars. “Regardless of any political implications or personal feelings about the organizations involved, if our robot can help keep people safe, we believe it should.” Amanda McMaster, the company’s former interim chief executive, answered the petition in an email obtained by The Boston Globe and WBUR, writing that the decision was “in line with our purpose of ethically advancing intelligent machines in service of humanity” and urging workers to “respect and accept this decision, even if you do not agree with it.” The company points to its terms of sale, which bar using Spot “to harm or intimidate any person or animal, as a weapon, or to enable any weapon,” and to an open letter it signed opposing the weaponization of general-purpose robots. The spokesperson said no customer has violated those terms, and that a violator would face a voided warranty, a cutoff of software updates, a terminated license, legal action and a permanent sales ban. Boston Dynamics also says the robots would go mainly to ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, which targets transnational crime, according to WBUR. The unit’s record is checkered. The Brennan Center for Justice documented its role in workplace raids and deportations of undocumented workers from 2018 to 2021, until Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas halted such operations early in the Biden administration. After President Trump returned to office in January 2025, an executive order redefined the unit’s primary mission and thousands of its agents moved back to immigration enforcement, according to the Immigration Policy Tracking Project. The petition names one operation in particular: the Sept. 4, 2025, raid by ICE and the investigations unit at Hyundai Motor Group’s Metaplant America factory in Georgia, which detained 475 workers, most of them South Korean. Hyundai has owned Boston Dynamics since June 2021. “We cannot be proud of working at Boston Dynamics when that work is being used by a government agency that brutalizes civilians, including some of our own colleagues at Hyundai,” the petition says. The raid, the largest of its kind, stirred public anger in South Korea and led leaders there to question investing in the United States, though Hyundai has kept the Georgia plant running and still plans to deploy thousands of Boston Dynamics Atlas humanoid robots at its American facilities. The dispute lands as Boston Dynamics grows: it is building a $100 million robotics and AI facility in Waltham, Mass., near its headquarters, a project it says will create 1,250 jobs by 2033. The spokesperson called the contract “a complicated and emotionally charged topic” and said the company welcomes employees “with views on every side of the social and political spectrum.” The signers ended on a colder note: “This decision makes Boston Dynamics a less attractive employer — it will make it more challenging to build the team we need as we scale.”