Media Must Cover ICE's Shock Gloves as a Torture Scandal

ICE awarded a $16.7 million no-bid contract for electric shock gloves — devices that work by "overloading the peripheral nerve endings" to cause pain. An Army study obtained through FOIA found that test participants felt intense pain, stopped resisting immediately, and feared additional exposures so much that merely seeing the glove was enough to force compliance. The pain can last up to 30 minutes and penetrates wet clothing. ICE calls them "distraction and de-escalation devices." Sixteen U.S. senators demanded answers. ICE has not responded. The agency's own statement said only that "officers are highly trained in de-escalation tactics."

A tool designed to inflict severe pain to force compliance is not de-escalation. It is a torture instrument. This is an agency that has already killed more than a dozen people this year, operates largely in secret, and has stonewalled congressional oversight at every turn. Giving that agency a $16.7 million contract for pain-compliance gloves — with no public safety review, no response to senators, and no transparency about how they'll be used — is a scandal that demands sustained press coverage.

We call on the media to cover ICE's shock glove program not as a law enforcement equipment story, but as what human rights experts and senators are calling it: the deployment of a torture tool by an unaccountable agency against people in its custody. The public deserves reporting that treats pain inflicted by the government as the moral and legal crisis it is.