Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is moving to spend $20 million on electric-shock gloves to aid in border control efforts, despite pushback from lawmakers who say this could encourage misuse of force.
Earlier this month, ICE came under fire for shooting and killing two innocent, legal immigrants in Texas and Maine. Border Czar Tom Homan claimed the agency needed more funds after Congress passed several reconciliation bills to grant it $74.85 billion to distribute body cameras and other non-lethal equipment to officers across the country.
Now, the agency is looking to invest in a new detention weapon that has lawmakers from both ends of the aisle concerned.
“The money that we put in for de-escalation training was intended to help agents deal more effectively when there’s a large crowd that appears to be getting out of control,” Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) said. “And it was teaching them techniques on how to deal with that.”
The devices are known as Generated Low Output Voltage Emitters (GLOVE) and have been used by some jails and police departments in recent years.
According to a notice from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last week, these gloves will serve as “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” for officers and agents and will be rolled out by March.
“I will be following up with ICE on that,” Collins said.
Representative Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) shared similar concerns over the devices, criticizing the gloves in a post on X as another dangerous tool to be used against immigrants and citizens alike.
“The worst-trained, most unhinged federal agency is getting $20 MILLION in electric-shock gloves…but can’t get its body cameras to work?” Rep. Crockett questioned.
These gloves come as yet another controversial move by DHS and ICE, with Texas Democrats continuing to question the motives behind their use of force and treatment of immigrants.
“This is nothing but an attempt to disguise their inhumane tactics,” Rep. Crockett wrote. “Cruelty is cruelty. Plain and simple.”
