DHS to Spend Up to $20 Million on Electric Shock Gloves for ICE Officers

The Department of Homeland Security published a notice this week saying it plans to spend between $10 million and $20 million to equip Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers with G.L.O.V.E.s, short for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitters, by the end of March 2027. The notice was first reported by the Associated Press.

The gloves look and function like normal patrol gear until an officer presses a button, switching on an electrical current. An officer has to press the glove directly to someone's skin to deliver a shock. DHS calls the device a "conductive distraction and de-escalation device" meant to gain compliance from people who are resisting arrest. Unlike Tasers, the gloves don't leave burn or contact marks, according to the Associated Press.

The purchase size, up to $20 million, suggests ICE intends to distribute the gloves to most or all of its officers, not run a limited trial.

A DHS spokesperson told TIME that "ICE is constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country." The agency repeated its claim that 70% of people ICE arrests are "dangerous illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime." That figure conflicts with data TIME cited showing a majority of people currently in ICE detention have no criminal convictions on their records.

Democrats and Former Officials Push Back

New York Attorney General Letitia James held a news conference Wednesday calling the plan "outrageous" and warning that ICE officers who misuse the gloves in New York could face criminal and civil consequences, according to the Long Beach Post.

Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Maxwell Frost and Delia Ramirez criticized the purchase on social media, arguing ICE doesn't need another weapon added to its arsenal.

John Sandweg, who served as acting director of ICE and acting general counsel of DHS under President Obama, told TIME the plan concerns him given how fast the agency has grown. "The idea that you need tools like this, this level of force, to subdue a non-criminal immigrant who's in a secure environment, that is alarming," Sandweg said. He argued the device carries "a high potential for abuse" because new ICE hires aren't getting adequate training, pointing to documents produced by two DHS whistleblowers in February that showed the agency scaled up hiring while cutting screening and training protocols. Sandweg said a rollout of this size should instead start as "small pilots" to test whether the gloves actually solve a problem in the field without being abused.

DHS's statement to news outlets did not name the G.L.O.V.E. product specifically or explain why it was selected, saying only that "every decision is made with careful consideration and appropriately reviewed to ensure that any technology ICE utilizes is consistent with all applicable law enforcement policies and standards."

A Pending Wrongful-Death Lawsuit

The devices are marketed as nonlethal and safe for the heart. But a pending lawsuit alleges a 43-year-old man died in 2024 after being shocked 27 times with the gloves and 13 more times with a Taser at the Madison County Detention Center in Richmond, Kentucky, according to the Associated Press. An internal investigation at that jail found two of the glove shocks lasted 45 and 99 seconds each, far beyond the manufacturer's recommended 15-second limit, and concluded the shocks "inflicted unnecessary pain but also heightened the risk of serious health complications," according to court documents cited by the AP.

The AP also identified two other lawsuits alleging injuries from the gloves, including a man with heart problems shocked at a Las Vegas trade show and a defendant who said he was shocked unnecessarily in a courtroom. Both of those cases were dismissed.

The gloves purchase lands alongside two other unresolved fights over ICE oversight. The agency announced this week it will equip all officers with body cameras, but the American Civil Liberties Union says the policy lets ICE withhold footage of deaths and serious injuries unless release is "in the best interests of the agency," a standard ACLU attorney Jay Stanley called an inversion of what makes body cameras an accountability tool rather than a surveillance and public-relations system.

Separately, ICE has faced questions this month over its detainee-death reporting after the agency waited more than ten days to respond to inquiries about the death of Jose Chajon-Raxon, a Guatemalan man who had a medical emergency at Newark's Delaney Hall in July, was released from custody four days later, and died shortly afterward. New Jersey Rep. Rob Menendez has said ICE dropped a Biden-era rule requiring review and public reporting of detainee deaths that occur after release.

Whether the shock gloves get deployed as planned, in small pilots as Sandweg suggests, or paused amid the lawsuit and Democratic pressure, remains an open question. DHS has set no public timeline beyond the March 2027 purchase deadline, and no congressional hearing on the procurement has been scheduled as of this week.