U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has awarded a nearly $17 million contract for 6,000 pairs of electric shock gloves designed to deliver painful jolts when they contact a person's skin. The six-month, no-bid contract was awarded to Compliant Technologies LLC, a Kentucky-based company that makes products for law enforcement. While ICE says the gear will help agents deescalate situations without relying on higher levels of force, Democratic lawmakers and civil rights advocates are pushing back against the acquisition.
The Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, or G.L.O.V.E., includes a button officers press to activate. The electrical shock is emitted when gloves contact bare skin. The company has called the $2,400-per-pair gloves a "pain compliance tool." ICE has not published detailed plans about who will have access to the gloves, what training will be required, or what oversight measures will be implemented for their use.
What the Left Is Saying
Several Democratic senators have written letters to the Department of Homeland Security voicing opposition and requesting that ICE make public its training requirements and establish a robust system for documenting every deployment. Katherine Hawkins, senior legal analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, called the contract "a terrible idea for an agency with this level of violence, a record of dishonesty and its use of force records, and just a general lack of accountability structures."
Naureen Shah, who leads immigration policy at the American Civil Liberties Union, raised concerns about whether ICE would actually investigate incidents involving severe injury. "We certainly don't have any assurance that if shock gloves are used on people and it results in severe injury, that ICE is actually gonna investigate that and tell the truth about it," she said.
Hawkins noted that lack of accountability has worsened under President Donald Trump's administration, with use of force increasing dramatically in early 2025 according to a report by American Oversight, a government watchdog nonprofit. She said holding officers accountable is difficult at the best of times "and even more so now."
What the Right Is Saying
White House border czar Tom Homan argued the gloves could help avert deadly encounters during an August Fox News interview. "It's another device to help someone get compliant when they are not," Homan said. "You can't just go from 0 to 100, right, and the first thing you go for is lethal force."
Local police agencies have opposed restrictions on electric shock gloves, saying they serve as an important deescalation tool. Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn told KDFW that trained senior supervisors in his county jail have been using similar gloves for a year when inmates physically resist and that the devices have been used successfully a few times.
Compliant Technologies President Dan De La Cruz has defended the product, calling it "so benign and humane that nobody gets hurt." During a demonstration of his company's shock gloves, he noted that if a suspect refuses to give law enforcement their hands for handcuffing, agents are typically forced to strike them or dig their knees into them. "None of this looks good on camera," De La Cruz said, arguing the gloves offer an alternative.
What the Numbers Show
The contract totals $16.8 million for 6,000 pairs of gloves at $2,400 per pair. The product's user manual recommends against using the gloves on elderly people, small children, pregnant women, and those who are severely handicapped. It also notes that electric shock can increase blood pressure, heart rate, and adrenaline, cause changes in heart rhythm, and may contribute to death or serious injury.
A pending lawsuit in Kentucky involves the death of a 43-year-old man who was shocked 27 times with similar gloves and an additional 13 times with a Taser at the Madison County Detention Center. ICE officers' use of force has faced increased scrutiny amid reports of deadly clashes.
Use of force by ICE can be subjected to civil rights review and prosecution, though Hawkins noted that accountability remains difficult to achieve. The gloves include memory cards that store data when activated, according to the product manual.
The Bottom Line
California's legislature passed a bill Monday banning law enforcement use of electric shock gloves in direct reaction to the federal contract, though whether it can limit ICE agents remains unclear after a federal judge struck down a California law restricting ICE officers from wearing face masks earlier this year. Civil rights experts argue the gloves present particular concerns because they leave no marks on skin and could be used behind closed doors with limited accountability.
Christopher Schneider, a sociology professor at Brandon University who studies policing, described the technology's rollout as problematic, noting ICE hasn't explained how officers in the field will determine whether someone is pregnant or has a pacemaker. "They are sort of a perfect tool for abuse," Schneider said. DHS did not respond to requests for comment on training protocols or oversight measures.