Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing to spend as much as $20 million on gloves that deliver a painful electric shock, a purchase that would place a new pain-compliance tool in the hands of the officers who carry out immigration arrests and deportations.
What ICE Is Buying
The device is the CTG 5 G.L.O.V.E., short for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, made by Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky. According to a contract notice posted on the Department of Homeland Security’s portal for forecasting contract opportunities and reported by CNN, NBC News and CBS News, ICE intends to award a firm, fixed-price contract without competition by the end of September, with delivery due by March 31, 2027.
Reporting places the value of the buy between roughly $10 million and $20 million.
How the Gloves Work
The manufacturer describes the gloves as functioning like ordinary patrol gloves until an officer flips a switch to activate the electrical mode. The glove must be applied directly to a person’s skin to deliver the shock, which the company says is meant to produce compliance within seconds.
That is a meaningful difference from a Taser. A Taser is a ranged weapon that overrides muscle control. These gloves work only at arm’s length and rely on pain alone.
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Who Would Carry Them
ICE plans to issue the devices to two components. The first is Enforcement and Removal Operations, the division responsible for immigration arrests, detention, and deportations. The second is Homeland Security Investigations, which handles cases including human trafficking and drug smuggling.
In practical terms, the officers most likely to carry them are the same officers immigrants encounter at home arrests, worksite operations, check-ins, and courthouse pickups.
Why Civil Rights Groups Are Alarmed
Civil rights advocates quoted by CNN raised concerns about oversight, noting that ICE use-of-force incidents already draw criticism and that accountability mechanisms have not kept pace with the agency’s expansion. Bloomberg tied the contract directly to the record pace of immigration arrests over the past year.
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The concern is not only the device but the paperwork around it. Pain-compliance tools are normally governed by written use-of-force policies, training requirements, and reporting obligations. ICE has not published a policy setting out when officers may activate the gloves.
What This Means for You
Nothing about this purchase changes your legal rights during an encounter with ICE. Those rights are unchanged.
You have the right to remain silent. You do not have to answer questions about your immigration status, your birthplace, or how you entered the country.
You do not have to open your door unless officers present a warrant signed by a judge. An ICE administrative warrant, Form I-200 or I-205, is not a judicial warrant. Ask officers to slide the document under the door or hold it up to a window.
Do not run, do not resist physically, and do not present false documents. Physical resistance is precisely the situation in which a pain-compliance device would be used, and it can create additional criminal exposure.
If you experience or witness force during an ICE encounter, write down the date, time, location, officer names or badge numbers, and the names of witnesses as soon as it is safe to do so. Seek medical attention and keep the records. Complaints can be filed with the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
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Memorize an attorney’s phone number. In custody, you may not have access to your phone.
This article is for general information only and is not legal advice.
What Happens Next
Because ICE plans a sole-source award, there is no competitive bidding process to slow the timeline. The contract is expected to be awarded by the end of September 2026, with delivery running into early 2027. Whether ICE publishes a use-of-force policy governing the devices before they reach the field remains an open question.
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