On August 27, 2026, a federal notice showed ICE had awarded a $16.7 million no-bid contract to Compliant Technologies LLC, a Kentucky manufacturer, for 6,000 pairs of gloves that deliver electric shocks, plus support equipment and services over six months.
The device looks like an ordinary patrol glove until an officer presses a button to activate electrical mode. It must touch bare skin, and it works by producing enough pain to make a resisting person comply. Some local jails and police departments already use similar equipment.
The threshold ICE set for using it is the detail worth reading closely. The agency's own notice says the glove “will be used when a subject is actively or passively resisting and an officer needs to gain control quickly to prevent injuries to both parties.” Passive resistance is a lower bar than violence. The listed scenarios include high-tension arrests, transport of combative detainees, and civil disturbances outside detention facilities, which is to say protesters as well as detainees. ICE's stated aim is to avoid escalating to greater force, including firearms. The notice referred to approved policy, training and accountability standards without giving details.
The manufacturer's own guidance is narrower than the agency's. Compliant Technologies says the gloves should not be used against verbal defiance or belligerence, as punishment, or for torture, and warns against deploying them on children, the elderly, pregnant women, or people with disabilities. It says officers need training and certification, with recertification every two years.
Hours before the notice appeared, 16 Senate Democrats led by Catherine Cortez Masto wrote to ICE's acting director urging the agency to drop the plan, arguing the agency's record undercuts confidence it can deploy such a tool safely: “The blatant and tragic misuse of force in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Houston, Maine, and other locations around the country raises significant skepticism about the agency's professional capability to safely deploy a new tool that could be used to harm Americans without cause.”
DHS defended the purchase: “Sanctuary politicians attempting to ban our federal law enforcement from any safety equipment is despicable and a deliberate attempt to undermine and endanger our officers” (see Trump Bought Up to $5 Million in Axon Stock Two Weeks Before ICE Sought a $220 Million Taser Deal Tailored to the Company and ICE Arrested More Than 800 People a Day With No Criminal Record in July, the First Month of the Term Where Civil Violations Were the Majority).
Update (September 30, 2026): California has banned the gloves for every officer in the state, federal agents included. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2760 on September 29, one of a package of bills aimed at Trump's immigration tactics; his office called it the first such ban in the country. The AP reports it applies to local, state and federal officers, takes effect next year and lasts until 2030. DHS: “Enforcing federal immigration laws is a clear federal responsibility,” and “Every decision is made with careful consideration and appropriately reviewed to ensure that any technology ICE utilizes is consistent with all applicable law enforcement policies and standards.” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, a Trump appointee, wrote on X: “If you want to regulate federal agents, you have to win a federal election. Until then, you have no jurisdiction.” The federal part may not survive in court. Kevin Johnson, a professor emeritus at the UC Davis School of Law, said “The state has very limited, if any, powers in dictating to the federal government how its officers are armed.” California law enforcement groups broadly opposed the ban.