ICE plans to spend $20M on high-tech electric shock gloves for deportation agents

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning to outfit its agents with high-tech gloves capable of delivering painful electric shocks to individuals during arrests and detainments.

According to procurement notices published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the agency intends to spend between $10 million and $20 million to acquire thousands of the devices by March 2027.

The devices—officially named the G.L.O.V.E. (Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter)—are manufactured by Kentucky-based firm Compliant Technologies LLC.

Designed to look and feel like standard patrol gloves, the gear features a concealed switch that, when activated, transmits an electric voltage directly onto a subject's exposed skin to force physical compliance within seconds.

The proposed purchase marks the largest single order of the shock technology to date, following smaller deployments across local police departments, state prisons, and county jails in recent years.

The gloves could soon be on the hands of ICE agents across the country (Compliant Technologies LLC)

Civil rights advocates sound the alarm

The proposed procurement has drawn immediate and fierce pushback from civil rights organizations, who argue that issuing concealed shock devices to immigration enforcement officers invites rampant abuse with minimal public oversight.

Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director on policing at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), warned that the concealed nature of the gloves makes excessive force difficult for onlookers or body cameras to detect.

“ICE spent the last year showing this country they are too quick to use force,” Borchetta said. “Now they will be able to deploy electric shocks with the slight push of a button that maybe nobody else can see them do.

"Introducing gloves that can so easily be used to deliver terrible pain in encounters is a recipe for harm to the public.”

Industry experts noted that officers are expected to utilize the gloves primarily during physical confrontations, such as removing uncooperative individuals from vehicles, houses, or transport vans into detention facilities.

Widespread immigration crackdowns have caused multiple pockets of protest across the United States (Katie G. Nelson/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Escalating enforcement measures

The push to acquire the shock gloves comes as the White House pressures ICE leadership to meet an aggressive arrest target of 2,000 individuals per day amidst an intensified national immigration crackdown.

While the manufacturer's official guidelines prohibit using the G.L.O.V.E. as a punishment or on vulnerable populations—including pregnant women, children, and the elderly—critics question how strictly those boundaries will be enforced in the field, particularly following an early string of fatalities at the start of the year in a crackdown on immigration.

On January 7, Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Two weeks later, on January 24, federal immigration agents fatally shot Alex Pretti in the streets of Minneapolis amid protests over the intensifying Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent presence in the area. Both were lawful US citizens.

Neither DHS officials nor Compliant Technologies immediately issued formal comments regarding the pending no-bid contract solicitation.