“This is just not the government people want. A government so sadistic and cruel that it delights in using your hard-earned tax dollars to buy gloves that shock people upon contact.
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ICE Moves to Buy Up to $20 Million of Electric Shock Gloves, Drawing Denunciations From a Dozen Congressional Democrats
August 15, 2026
On Monday, August 10, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security posted a procurement notice signaling that Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to buy thousands of "Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter" devices — marketed as the G.L.O.V.E., or CTG-5 — from Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky, on a no-bid basis. The gloves function as ordinary patrol gloves until an officer presses a switch, at which point they deliver a painful electric shock on contact. Reporting by Axios and CBS News on August 12 put the value of the planned purchase at $10 million to $20 million, with deliveries to be completed by the end of March. ICE and DHS have described the device as a "conductive distraction and de-escalation device." A DHS spokesperson said 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," and the agency said its officers "regularly receive ongoing use of force training." Within 48 hours at least a dozen congressional Democrats — four senators and eight House members — publicly condemned the plan, most of them on social media. Several tied the purchase directly to the roughly $70 billion in ICE and Customs and Border Protection funding Congress approved in June over Democratic objections, and several used the occasion to renew calls to abolish the agency. Reps. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) and Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) had introduced the Melt ICE Act in January to dismantle DHS. No congressional Republican was on record defending or criticizing the purchase in the first days of coverage.
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14 Statements
“$20 million of taxpayer money for electric shock gloves?! This is horrifying and infuriating.
“Instead they handed DHS BILLIONS more of your tax dollars without any constraint after the shooting and killing [of] individuals in the streets. Now, ICE is looking to purchase electrical shock gloves to continue terrorizing our communities.
“Beyond cruel. This is appalling and inhumane.
“Now, they're spending $20 million of YOUR taxpayer dollars on painful electric shock gloves for their masked, lawless goons. ICE must be stopped.
“This is what happens when you have an out-of-control agency that has been given billions in a bottomless slush fund by Trump and the Republican Congress.
“Instead of spending your taxpayer dollars on healthcare or education, they spent it on shock gloves for masked, out-of-control ICE agents.
“This is an agency that has already killed more than 50 people in its custody. And now they want new tools to hurt people, tools designed to disrupt someone's ability to even respond.
“Known to torture and kill our neighbors. Abolish and prosecute ICE.
“This is shameful! People have suffered enough from these violent ICE agents. This rogue agency must be abolished, not given more ways to hurt our neighbors and terrorize our communities.
“ICE is a rogue agency that moves with disregard for public safety, constitutional rights, and basic human dignity. If agents have gloves that electrocute anyone they touch, we’re all in danger.
“We are outraged. [Asked whether she would take action against DHS if someone in New York were injured by the devices:] You can best be assured of that.
“Under no circumstances can DHS be trusted with electric shock gloves and the power to inflict 'sudden' death!
“You cannot trample on someone's constitutional rights, and you cannot cause them undo harm. You will be held accountable.