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The electric shock gloves that U.S. immigration agents may soon use to control detainees and protesters performed with such power during a military exercise that participants felt intense pain, stopped fighting immediately, and feared further exposure, according to a previously undisclosed Army study.
Leaders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were aware of the findings before signing a $16.7 million contract to purchase 6,000 pairs of electric shock gloves in August, according to records obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight and shared with The Associated Press.
The shocks had a profound impact on Army employees who played the role of combative prisoners during the exercise, which was held at the Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas in October 2024. The participants, several of whom were large men, stopped resisting seconds after guards applied the gloves and were left with “fatigue, pain, and an excessive apprehension of receiving another shock,” the study concluded.
“After experiencing the effects of the glove, ... participants stated that just seeing the glove was enough to make them want to comply,” the authors wrote.
ICE electric gloves cause pain and injure people
ICE has described the gloves as “distraction and de-escalation devices” that are less harmful than other non-lethal options for subduing immigrants or agitated protesters. The agency has maintained that the rapid compliance they elicit will keep guards safer and prevent incidents from requiring the use of lethal force.
But critics argue the gloves give ICE another weapon to intimidate and brutalize people, even as the agency is under fire for excessive use of force that has left a trail of deaths and injuries across the country. The gloves, they note, are easy to activate, leave no mark, and have not been widely used in settings outside of prisons. The manufacturer warns that they should not be used on vulnerable people such as children, pregnant women, or individuals with disabilities.
“The military evaluation in ICE’s own files shows that these gloves can cause ‘intense pain’ and force compliance. It does not establish that they are safe,” said Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight. “Everyone should be alarmed that ICE is preparing to deploy a tool designed to inflict, at best, intense pain, without demonstrating that it is safe for the people who will be subjected to it.”
ICE provided the study and other documents to American Oversight as part of the group’s lawsuit, under the Freedom of Information Act, against the agency to obtain records related to its use of force.
Study found that electric gloves caused “immediate” compliance
The study at the military prison evaluated whether the gloves could be used effectively to forcibly remove combative prisoners from their cells, respond to disturbances in common areas, and transport uncooperative inmates. Employees who participated in simulations carried out various scenarios with and without the gloves to measure their impact, including violent confrontations in which inmates were required to fight with all their strength.
The study determined that the devices “increased the efficiency” of teams performing forced cell extractions and responding to disturbances by reducing the duration of physical confrontations, avoiding guard exhaustion, and preventing injuries. They did not “significantly change” the time it took to control inmates during escorted transfers, but they did require less effort.
The glove “provides a confidence boost to smaller or less trained agents,” the study concluded. “Inmate compliance was immediate” compared to other methods, it added.
The electric shock does not cause the body to freeze like a taser shock does, but rather “works by overloading the peripheral nerve endings” of the skin to cause pain, the study indicated. Participants who were wet or had oil on their skin described even more powerful shocks, and one reported discomfort for 30 minutes afterward.
Senator says ICE has not responded to requests for details on the gloves
The ICE contract requires the manufacturer, Compliant Technologies LLC, to deliver the gloves within six months. Its owner, Jeff Niklaus, said he was unavailable for an interview, citing a heavy workload.
White House border czar Tom Homan has said that widespread use of the gloves could “take a while” because ICE is still fine-tuning training and policy issues. The agency did not respond to an AP request for comment on the study and the status of the deployment.
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada indicated that ICE has not responded to an August 27 letter in which she and 15 other Democratic Senate colleagues asked the agency to abandon its plan to purchase the gloves or explain how they would be used and managed to prevent abuse. She noted that she is still waiting.
“Without ICE’s answers to legitimate questions from 16 senators, the American public is being kept in the dark about how these electric gloves are being deployed and what training, if any, the agents who use them have received,” she stated.
[Publicidad]