ICE Plans $10–20 Million Electric-Shock Glove Purchase for Agents
The Trump administration plans to spend between $10 million and $20 million outfitting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers with electric-shock gloves, according to a Department of Homeland Security notice posted on a public procurement portal. The notice, listed as a no-bid contract, estimates DHS will invest in the devices by the end of March 2027 and specifies that ICE has a requirement to make the purchase and distribute the gloves to agents within Enforcement and Removal Operations and Homeland Security Investigations (Al Jazeera; DHS procurement record).
ICE plans to purchase thousands of the gloves, The Guardian reported on August 11, 2026, noting that the upper-bound spend of $20 million is roughly equivalent to £15 million (The Guardian). Axios reported the following day that the gloves are "designed to cause pain and disrupt a person's ability to resist" (Axios).
The device is the CT-G5 G.L.O.V.E., an acronym for "Generate Low Output Voltage Emitter" (or "Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter," per The Hill), manufactured by Compliant Technologies (Al Jazeera; The Hill; Compliant Technologies). According to a user manual, the gloves can deliver a maximum of 380 volts, which "inhibits/distracts the subject from performing coordinated muscle movement" (Al Jazeera).
DHS indicated the gloves would be used for "distraction and de-escalation." The same devices are currently used by some jails and police departments (Al Jazeera).
Compliant Technologies founder and CEO Jeff Niklaus declined to comment on the planned purchase, saying, "Unfortunately, we are unable to speak on this subject" (Al Jazeera). The manufacturer's guidelines recommend avoiding use of the gloves on "higher risk" individuals, including the elderly, small children, pregnant people, and those with severe disabilities. Compliant Technologies requires officers to complete a training course and be recertified every two years (Al Jazeera).
The Associated Press, one of the first outlets to report on the DHS plan, noted that it drew outrage and fears of misuse (Associated Press). The National Immigration Law Center released a statement on August 12, 2026, criticizing the planned purchase as a path to further violence against vulnerable communities. NILC President Kica Mantos said, "Arming poorly trained agents with electric shock gloves to inflict pain on our neighbors is disgusting and barbaric" (Al Jazeera; NILC).
The procurement is structured as a no-bid contract, meaning DHS did not open the requirement to competitive bidding. For an agency whose enforcement activities already face intense legal and political scrutiny, the decision to bypass competition on a novel use-of-force tool will likely draw attention from congressional overseers and civil liberties organizations. The no-bid mechanism also means the public record on cost justification, alternative products considered, and volume projections is thinner than what a competitive solicitation would produce.
Several factual dimensions of this plan warrant attention. The training and recertification requirement Compliant Technologies itself imposes is a two-year cycle. Whether ICE will adopt that standard or supplement it with agency-specific protocols has not been specified in the procurement notice. The gap matters: ERO and HSI agents operate in environments ranging from controlled detention settings to field arrests, where the variables of physical confrontation differ significantly from the corrections contexts in which the gloves are already deployed. The manufacturer's own risk advisories regarding elderly individuals, children, pregnant people, and those with severe disabilities intersect directly with the demographics of ICE's enforcement encounters. How those contraindications translate into operational policy for agents making split-second decisions in the field remains an open question.
The broader context here is the Trump administration's sustained expansion of ICE's enforcement toolkit and operational latitude. Equipping agents with a close-range use-of-force device that delivers up to 380 volts places this procurement within a pattern of prioritizing agent-level deterrence capacity. Whether the "distraction and de-escalation" framing DHS has adopted will satisfy the scrutiny that civil liberties groups and congressional Democrats are likely to apply is the question that will shape the political trajectory of this procurement as it moves toward the March 2027 expenditure deadline.
