ICE plans $20m purchase of electric-shock gloves for immigration officers
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to spend up to $20 million on gloves that deliver electric shocks, prompting concern from civil rights groups including the ACLU.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a note published Monday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to spend as much as $20m (£14.8m) to buy devices called GLOVE (Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter) — gloves capable of delivering an electric shock. A no-bid contract for the purchase could be published as soon as Friday.
The gloves are made by Compliant Technologies LLC, which declined to comment on the deal. They can deliver up to 380 volts — roughly three times the charge of a standard US power outlet — at up to 30 pulses per second, and include a built-in microprocessor that logs each activation.
Unlike a taser, which uses barbs in the skin to deliver up to 50,000 volts and complete an electrical circuit in the body, the gloves only deliver a shock through direct contact with skin. The manufacturer's user manual advises against use on elderly people, small children, pregnant women and severely handicapped individuals, and recommends having an additional officer present to restrain the subject during use.
According to the DHS note, the gloves would be used by officers in Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which targets transnational criminal organisations, and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), which handles arrests, detentions and deportations. Some agencies already use the gloves, but the planned ICE purchase is believed to be the largest ever made from Compliant Technologies.
Civil rights concerns
Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy director on policing at the ACLU, said ICE has shown over the past year a willingness to disregard the law and use excessive force, sometimes with fatal results. She warned that a concealed means of inflicting pain via a button press could reduce accountability and increase risk to the public. The agency has faced scrutiny over recent deaths during enforcement operations, including the fatal shooting of Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and the killing of Colombian national Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine. ICE remains under pressure to meet President Donald Trump's deportation targets, including daily arrest quotas.
