They look like ordinary tactical gloves, but with just the press of a button they can become a tool capable of delivering a painful electric shock to the person an immigration agent touches with them. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has just taken the next step to incorporate them into its operations: it awarded a $16.7 million contract to purchase 6,000 pairs, amid strong questioning about the use of force and the controls that the new technology will have.
The contract, awarded without bidding to the company Compliant Technologies LLC, based in Kentucky, includes the gloves, support equipment, and services for six months. Each pair is priced at $2,495. The devices are known as G.L.O.V.E., an acronym for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter. They function as conventional gloves until the agent activates their electric mode with a button. To produce the shock, they must come into direct contact with a person’s skin.
ICE describes them in its acquisition documents as “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” and states that they will be used in high-tension situations, which could include arrests, detainee transfers, and disturbances around detention centers.
According to the agency, the gloves could be used when a person presents active or passive resistance and the agent needs to quickly gain control to prevent injuries. ICE argues that the tool can reduce the need to use physical force and offers an alternative to having to resort to a firearm in more dangerous situations.
“ICE currently does not have a hands-on use of force device that it can provide to its agents in the field, amid unprecedented levels of threats and violence against ICE agents and officials, to help ensure they can de-escalate tense situations before they become violent,” the agency stated in the contracting documents.
But the purchase has sparked an immediate reaction among Democratic lawmakers and civil rights organizations, who question both the need for the device and ICE’s ability to use it responsibly.
Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada led a letter signed by 15 other Senate members asking ICE to cancel the plan. The lawmakers expressed doubts about the agency’s ability to safely incorporate a tool that can cause pain during civil arrests.
“The flagrant and tragic misuse of force in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Houston, Maine, and other places across the country generates significant skepticism about the agency’s professional capacity to safely deploy a new tool that could be used to harm Americans without cause,” they wrote.
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The senators warned that the device presents “substantial risks” if used during civil arrests, especially without clear limits, proper training, and comprehensive oversight. They also demanded that ICE make public the training protocols and procedures to document and review each use of the gloves.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also questioned the acquisition. The organization stated that providing immigration agents “a hidden means to inflict terrible pain is a recipe for causing more harm to the public and reducing accountability.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defended the purchase and assured that agents receive training in de-escalation tactics. A spokesperson called the Democratic criticisms “despicable” and a deliberate attempt to “undermine and endanger our agents.”
In California, Democratic lawmakers urgently pushed the AB 2760 bill. The initiative seeks to prohibit federal agents and state and local police from using devices capable of producing electric shocks, as well as preventing police departments from purchasing them with state money.
Assemblywoman LaShae Sharp-Collins, the bill’s author, defended the measure before lawmakers. “Although the gloves are not currently being used in California, waiting for a tragedy to happen before acting, in my opinion and that of many others, would be something California could not afford,” she said.
Although ICE states that the gloves will be used under policies, training requirements, and accountability standards, the acquisition documents do not detail those safeguards. Compliant Technologies’ manual recommends giving a person a reasonable opportunity to comply before using force and notes that the devices should not be used as punishment or against the elderly, pregnant women, young children, or people with severe disabilities.
