The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE, for its acronym in English) has closed a direct contract, without public bidding, valued at 16.7 million dollars (a little over 14.3 million euros) to purchase 6,000 gloves capable of delivering electric shocks. According to the agency, this new equipment will allow agents to control detained individuals who resist and avoid resorting to more lethal weaponry.
In the documentation of the contract, released this Thursday, ICE defines the gloves as "conductive distraction and de-escalation devices" and claims that this technology will provide personnel with a lower-impact alternative during arrests, transfers of individuals in custody, and altercations in the vicinity of detention centers.
"Currently, ICE does not have any force-use device that does not involve the use of hands to provide its agents on the ground, in a context of unprecedented levels of threats and violence against ICE officers and agents, in order to ensure they can de-escalate tense situations before they become violent," argues the agency in the file.
The justification for the purchase details that the G.L.O.V.E. glove (acronym in English for "Low Voltage Output Emitter") will be used when a person "actively or passively resists and an agent needs to control them quickly to prevent injury to both parties."
Criticism in the U.S. Senate
After the operation became public, Democratic Senator from Nevada Catherine Cortez Masto, along with 15 other senators — 14 Democrats and one independent — has formally requested ICE to reverse and cancel the acquisition.
"The proposed acquisition raises serious doubts about the necessity, proportionality, medical safety, training, accountability, and constitutional rights," they state in their letter, emphasizing that "these doubts are of particular importance, given the intense public scrutiny surrounding ICE's excessive use of force."
The senators particularly underline that "the egregious and tragic misuse of force in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Houston, Maine, and other places in the country raises great skepticism about the agency's professional capacity to safely implement a new tool that could be used to harm Americans without any justification."
"We urge ICE to rescind the contract and reconsider the purchase," they claim, adding that "if ICE goes ahead with the purchase (...) Congress must clearly understand the safety of this device and the authorized uses."
Warnings from human rights organizations
Just over a week before the award was announced, the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) had already warned about this possible purchase, denouncing that "ICE has perpetrated widespread acts of violence and abuse against immigrants and American citizens," including "the illegal use of excessive and lethal force, as well as the dangerous deployment of so-called 'less lethal' weapons at close range."
The NGO insisted then that "the magnitude of the potential harm of this technology in the hands of ICE," an agency that recruits people "with minimal training," could be "considerable," and called for an investigation into the acquisition of these gloves due to their "risks" and "potential for abuse," given the limited oversight exercised by the U.S. Congress in this area.
HRW also recalled the trade restrictions imposed by the European Union on devices that generate electric shocks, due to their "abusive use" in various countries, even as a tool of torture and other cruel treatment.
In this same vein, the UN special rapporteur on torture concluded in 2023 that "direct contact electric shock weapons" are "inherently cruel, inhuman or degrading," and called for their total prohibition at the international level.