US to buy thousands of electric shock gloves for ICE agents

Rights groups and Democrats are warning that ICE agents are unfit to use the shock gloves responsibly. Since US President Trump's crackdown on immigration, several people have been killed during ICE raids across the US.

US immigration enforcement agency ICE has awarded a $16.7 million (€14.33 million) contract to buy 6,000 pairs of gloves that can deliver electric shocks.

Since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) earlier this month announced its plans to use the gloves, there has been strong criticism by human rights groups and the Democrat opposition.

ICE is already facing intense criticism for its aggressive raids and tactics. 

Since US President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration began, several people have been killed in encounters between ICE officers and immigrants and people protesting against the agency.

How do the gloves work?

The controversial devices look like normal patrol gloves. But officers can activate an electric mode with the press of a button.

If they do so, the gloves will deliver a painful electric shock to whoever the officers touch with the gloves. 

They are already in use in some prisons and police departments in the United States.

The ICE notice said officers would use them in "high-tension environments," such as arrests, transporting detainees and responding to civil disturbances outside of detention facilities.

"It will be used when a subject is actively or passively resisting and an officer needs to gain control quickly to prevent injuries to both parties," the document said.

Skepticism over ICE's 'professional capability'

The notice about the purchase contract was published on Thursday just hours after a group of US senators called for the plans to use the gloves to be abandoned.

In a letter to ICE's acting director, a group led by Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada said that the "blatant and tragic misuse of force in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Houston, Maine, and other locations around the country raises significant skepticism about the agency's professional capability to safely deploy a new tool that could be used to harm Americans without cause."

When the DHS earlier this month announced its plans for ICE officers to use the gloves, it said called the shock gloves "a Conductive Distraction and De-escalation ⁠Device ​which will be issued to Homeland Security Investigations ​and Enforcement Removal Operations officers and agents."

While President Donald Trump says his crackdown on illegal immigration will boost domestic security, there have been several fatal shootings during ICE raids and more than 50 people have died in ICE custody, according to Reuters news agency and US media reports.

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Edited by: Sean Sinico