A proposed ICE purchase of electric shock gloves that can hit exposed skin with up to 380 volts has House Democrats warning DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to shut the deal down before anyone else gets hurt.
Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, demanded that Mullin “halt this procurement before more innocent lives are lost.”
The gloves are formally called Generated Low Output Voltage Emitters and marketed as G.L.O.V.E.
A DHS contracting notice put the possible buy at up to $20 million for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during immigration enforcement operations.
The product’s own paperwork gave Democrats some of their sharpest ammunition.
Senate Republicans had the opportunity to rein in ICE and CBP, they refused.
Instead they handed DHS BILLIONS more of your tax dollars without any constraint after the shooting and killing individuals in the streets.
Now, ICE is looking to purchase electrical shock gloves to… https://t.co/ZAPkKTittT
— Senator Adam Schiff (@SenAdamSchiff) August 12, 2026
Compliant Technologies, which makes G.L.O.V.E., warns that users who ignore its guidance could cause “[injury or death].”
The manual tells users not to deploy the gloves against elderly, pregnant or disabled people and cautions that some medical conditions are not visible.
It also advises against two officers using the gloves on one person at the same time. Skin contact should not exceed 15 seconds, according to the company’s guidance.
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Unlike a taser-style weapon, G.L.O.V.E. is not meant to incapacitate someone and cannot deliver a shock through clothing. It works only when the glove touches exposed skin.
New York Democrats Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James warned that ICE may face legal issues for using the devices in the state.
“You cannot trample on someone’s constitutional rights, and you cannot cause them undo harm. You will be held accountable,” Hochul remarked about the gloves. “[The protections] should be in effect here.”
James said the proposal “appears to be in violation of a number of laws,” and signaled that her office would mount a legal challenge if any New Yorkers were injured by the shock gloves.
“You can best be assured of that,” she asserted.
“Senate Republicans had the opportunity to rein in ICE and CBP, they refused. Instead they handed DHS BILLIONS more of your tax dollars without any constraint after the shooting and killing individuals in the streets. Now, ICE is looking to purchase electrical shock gloves to continue terrorizing our communities,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) wrote on the social platform X.
“How soon will they be used to inflict further cruelty?”
White House border czar Tom Homan cast the devices as an alternative to deadly force during a Thursday appearance on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
“You can’t just go from 0 to 100, right, and the first thing you go for is lethal force,” Homan said.
Homan said the gloves could help officers force compliance without going straight to a gun.
“It’s another device to help someone get compliant when they are not,” he said.
He also suggested the devices may belong first in detention settings, not broadly in the field. Fights inside facilities and detainees getting out of control were the examples he gave.
“There’s a lot of training involved,” Homan said. “There’s still some background issues that need to be dealt with.”
The training plan is still being written and reviewed, Homan said, adding that officials would “see when they get rolled out.”
Thompson argued that ICE’s history makes the glove plan dangerous even before the first purchase order lands.
His letter said ICE under the Trump administration has shot 23 people and killed six, including three U.S. citizens.
Thompson said many of those people were not targets of immigration enforcement. Some, he said, were exercising First Amendment rights.
The letter also accused DHS personnel of permanently injuring and nearly killing innocent people with weapons labeled as “less-lethal,” including force tools such as rubber bullets and chemical sprays.
For Thompson, the company’s warnings and ICE’s record point in the same direction.
“Given ICE’s horrific record of violence against the public, the agency must not be allowed to equip its officers and agents with a device that demands both significant training for and restraint by its users,” Thompson said.
DHS defended the possible purchase as part of ICE’s continuing review of what agents need in the field.
“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,” a DHS spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said ICE reviews technology decisions to ensure they fit law enforcement policies and standards.
The department has not said exactly when officers might receive the gloves or whether they would be used mainly in detention facilities rather than during public-facing immigration work.
A DHS notice says the gloves may be distributed as early as March 2027.
The device already has a track record in correctional facilities and police departments.
Kentucky corrections official Justin Hall told the Associated Press that his agency began using the gloves four years ago for difficult-to-control inmates.
Hall said he has been shocked more than 10 times while officers were training with the devices. He described intense pain that stopped once the glove was no longer touching him.
His jail rarely uses the gloves, Hall told the AP, but he said they can help after other attempts to settle a situation do not work.
“It’s just a safer way,” Hall said. “It’s safer on the inmate. It’s safer on the staff. And most of the time, most of the time we get compliance.”
“It’s been a great tool for our facility,” Hall added.
Democrats see the same device very differently when placed in ICE agents’ hands.
Thompson’s letter said the agency has already misused rubber bullets, chemical sprays and other force tools in ways that put the public at greater risk of serious injury or death.
The procurement clock is still moving: up to $20 million for shock gloves, with possible distribution starting in March 2027.
