Tell Congress: Block ICE from Purchasing "Shock Gloves"

ICE is trying to put electric shock gloves into the hands of immigration agents — and Congress must stop it now.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has awarded a $16.7 million contract to buy 6,000 pairs of gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks when pressed against bare skin. ICE claims the devices would help agents control people during arrests, transportation, detention, and protests. But for an agency already facing serious allegations of abuse and excessive force, this is a recipe for violence.

Democrats in Congress are demanding DHS cancel the contract, ban the devices across immigration enforcement and detention, and disclose information about training, testing, inventories, and misuse of so-called "less-lethal" weapons, but they need to go further and block this plan through legislation.

Tell Congress: Block ICE from buying electric shock gloves, cancel this dangerous contract, and stop DHS from escalating violence against immigrants, protesters, and detainees.

The warning signs could not be clearer. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is now warning that equipping ICE agents with electric shock gloves would increase the violence associated with their operations. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has also listed the G.L.O.V.E. device as violating the Convention Against Torture.

These gloves are low-visibility weapons designed to cause pain at close range. That makes them especially dangerous in immigration raids, detention centers, protests, and encounters with people who may already be terrified, restrained, medically vulnerable, or unable to understand agents’ commands.

Add your name now and demand Congress stop ICE from turning immigration enforcement into an even more dangerous and abusive system.

The petition to Congress reads:

"Block ICE and the Department of Homeland Security from purchasing, deploying, or using electric shock gloves in immigration enforcement and detention. Cancel the $16.7 million contract, ban these devices across ICE and CBP operations, investigate the use of so-called ‘less-lethal’ weapons, and require full accountability for deaths and abuses in U.S. immigration custody."