ICE awards $16.7M contract to buy 6,000 pairs of gloves that deliver electric shocks - AP News

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement awarded a $16.7 million no-bid contract to purchase 6,000 pairs of electric shock gloves, devices the agency says officers will use to control detainees and protesters who resist.

The contract notice appeared in a federal database Thursday. ICE moved forward with the purchase despite opposition from civil rights advocates and Democratic members of Congress, who argued the agency cannot be trusted to deploy the technology appropriately.

At roughly $2,800 per pair, the gloves are designed to deliver painful electric shocks on contact. By skipping competitive bidding, ICE bypassed a process that typically applies to large federal purchases.

For people in Lubbock, this has a real edge. The West Texas Detention Facility in downtown has held ICE detainees for years, and Lubbock sits along one of the busiest immigration enforcement corridors in the country. Any new tool issued to ICE officers nationwide would eventually reach facilities like the ones that operate in this region.

Civil rights groups and members of Congress raised concerns before the contract was finalized, and ICE proceeded anyway. That sequence matters because it signals the agency treated internal opposition as a speed bump, not a stop sign.

The contract is silent on how use of the gloves will be monitored or reviewed after deployment.