Shock gloves purchased by ICE cause intense pain and quick compliance, Army study finds

The shock gloves immigration agents could soon use to control detainees and protesters worked so powerfully during a military exercise that participants felt intense pain, stopped fighting immediately and feared additional exposures, according to a previously unreleased Army study.

The shocks had a profound impact on Army employees who played the role of combative prisoners during the exercise, which took place at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas in October 2024. The participants, several of whom were large-statured men, stopped resisting seconds after officers applied shocks by touching gloves to their skin, and were left with "fatigue, soreness and excessive apprehensiveness to being shocked again," the study found.

"ICE does not currently have an empty hand use of force device to provide to the field amid unprecedented levels of threats and violence against ICE officers and agents to help ensure they can de-escalate tense situations before they turn violent," the agency wrote in procurement documents.

"The military assessment 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 showing that it is safe for the people who will be subjected to it."

ICE released the study and other documents to American Oversight as part of the group's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the agency seeking records related to its use of force.

The military prison study assessed whether the gloves could be used effectively to forcibly remove combative prisoners from their cells, to respond to disturbances in common areas and to transport uncooperative inmates. Role-playing employees conducted several scenarios with and without the gloves to test their impact, including violent encounters in which inmates were to fight as hard as they could.

"GLOVE provides a boost in confidence to smaller or less trained members," the study found. "Inmate compliance was immediate" compared to other methods, it added.

Senator says ICE hasn't responded to demand for details on gloves' use

The six-month deal includes the gloves, support equipment and services. The gloves themselves cost $2,495 apiece.

White House border czar Tom Homan has said it could "be awhile" before the gloves are in the field because ICE is still ironing out training and policy issues. A statement released Tuesday by ICE did not address questions about the study and the status of the rollout, but said "officers are highly trained in de-escalation tactics."

"Without ICE's responses to legitimate questions from 16 United States Senators, the American public is being left in the dark about how these electric shock gloves are being deployed and what, if any, training the agents who use them have received," she said.

"ICE is constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country. 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," the spokesperson said, adding that personnel are "highly trained in de-escalation tactics."