Democratic lawmakers from Capitol Hill to California are pushing back on a plan at ICE to equip agents with electric shock gloves.
ICE approved a deal last week to buy 6,650 electric shock gloves that deliver a low voltage shock upon contact with skin.
New contracting records reviewed by Scripps News show ICE plans to use the gloves “in cases where an individual is resisting arrest or otherwise represents a clear threat to officers and agents.”
The documents show ICE may also use the devices against protesters for crowd control.
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Compliant Technologies, based in Kentucky, won a $16.7 million non-competitive contract to produce the gloves for ICE. It marks the first time the company has received a U.S. government contract.
The user manual for the gloves says they may increase the risk of sudden death and should not be a tool against the elderly, small children, pregnant women and those who are “severely handicapped.”
“This is new technology that we don't know much about,” said LaShae Sharp-Collins, a Democrat and member of the California State Assembly. She wrote a bill that seeks to ban federal law enforcement from using any wearable electroshock device in the state.
"I'm just really concerned about people's safety and giving people the opportunity to understand what this glove is,” she said.
DHS says Sharp-Collins' bill amounts to an unconstitutional power grab from the federal government.
“California’s sanctuary politicians do not control federal law enforcement,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement sent to Scripps News.
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Sixteen U.S. senators, all Democrats, also signed a letter to ICE’s acting director calling on him to cancel the glove purchases because of concerns about lack of training and accountability measures.
While DHS has not shared details about the training agents would receive, the agency spokesperson said all officers are “highly trained in de-escalation techniques.”
The contract does not say when ICE would receive the gloves and begin using them.
