White House border czar Tom Homan defended a new tool that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers could soon add to their arsenal: electric shock gloves.
In a Thursday interview with Fox News, Homan was asked about the device, known by the acronym GLOVE — short for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter.
“How would that work and what role would they play?” host Brian Kilmeade asked.
“Well look, it’s another device to help someone be compliant when they’re not,” Homan responded. He cast the gloves as an alternative to lethal force, arguing, “you just can't go from 0 to 100.”
The gloves, Homan said, could be deployed in detention facilities during fights and in situations “where detainees get out of control.” He also pointed to what he said had been a sharp rise in threats against federal agents.
Still, President Donald Trump’s border czar stressed that the devices are not poised for an immediate rollout, saying there are “still some training issues that need to be dealt with.”
The interview came three days after the Department of Homeland Security posted a notice saying ICE planned to spend up to $20 million on the devices for officers by March 2027.
The gloves — manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC in Kentucky – have already been used by jails and certain police departments. When activated and applied to someone’s skin, they deliver a pain stimulus.
“The G.L.O.V.E. quickly transforms into a CD3 (Conductive Distraction and De-escalation Device) when used within the Force Continuum to supplement existing tools for law enforcement, corrections, security, EMS and the military,” Compliant Technologies’ website states. “It is available as an ‘invisible partner’ to enhance the user's effectiveness when operating within their agencies' already established tactics, techniques and procedures.”
Civil rights advocates expressed alarm at the news that federal agents could soon be equipped with the devices.
“ICE spent the last year showing this country they are too quick to use force,” Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director at the American Civil Liberties Union, told The Associated Press.
“Now they will be able to deploy electric shocks with the slight push of a button that maybe nobody else can see them do,” she added. “Introducing gloves that can so easily be used to deliver terrible pain in encounters is a recipe for harm to the public.”
The tactics of federal immigration agents have come under intense scrutiny over the past year amid Trump’s immigration crackdown.
In a Marist poll conducted one month after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota, nearly two-thirds of Americans said ICE’s actions had gone too far.
DHS’ independent watchdog has opened multiple investigations into the department, including over ICE’s hiring program, use of force and detention facilities.
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