Immigration and Customs Enforcement has signed a $16.7 million no-bid contract with Compliant Technologies LLC, a Kentucky-based firm, to supply 6,000 pairs of electric shock gloves, according to the Boston Globe. The purchase works out to roughly $2,783 per pair.
The devices, called Generated Low Output Voltage Emitters, or GLOVE, deliver an electric shock to anyone the wearer touches. House Democrats who oppose the purchase describe them as “designed to inflict severe pain without leaving physical evidence or visible optics.”
The letter demanding cancellation
Representative Delia Ramirez of Illinois led 50 House Democrats in an August 31 letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin expressing “profound alarm” over the contract and calling the gloves “a uniquely dangerous tool for unaccountable abuse” and demanding “the immediate cancellation of this contract and a total ban on the deployment of these abusive devices across all immigration enforcement and detention operations,” according to Common Dreams. The letter argues that a device built to leave no mark and no visible sign of use removes the ordinary evidence that documents excessive force, per the same report. It came four days after ICE awarded the contract.
Sixteen senators, led by Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and sent as a separate letter from the House effort, urged ICE to cancel the purchase. Their letter questions the agency’s ability to deploy the gloves safely, pointing to ICE’s existing record on use of force in detention and enforcement settings.
The agency’s response
DHS defended the purchase, saying “sanctuary politicians attempting to ban our federal law enforcement from any safety equipment is despicable and a deliberate attempt to undermine and endanger our officers,” according to the Boston Globe. Neither ICE nor DHS has said whether officers carrying the gloves will receive shock-specific training or operate under written rules for when the devices can be used.
Safety record cited by opponents
The Center for Victims of Torture called the devices “inherently abusive equipment that facilitates torture,” according to Common Dreams. Opponents of the purchase, including the ACLU and Physicians for Human Rights, have pointed to the case of a 43-year-old Kentucky man who died after corrections officers shocked him dozens of times with electric gloves in a domestic law enforcement setting.
More than 50 people have died in ICE custody during Trump’s second term, according to Common Dreams’ report on the letter. Opponents have cited that toll in arguing against giving the agency a device that, by design, leaves no mark for investigators to document.
Where it stands
The contract runs six months from the date of the notice, covering the 6,000 pairs of gloves along with supporting equipment and services from Compliant Technologies, the Kentucky firm ICE selected without a competitive bidding process. As of this writing, neither ICE nor DHS has announced any change to the contract or set a start date for deploying the gloves in the field, and neither agency has said whether it will respond directly to the House or Senate letters beyond the public statement defending the purchase.
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