A notice published Monday by the Department of Homeland Security says ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on gloves it calls “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices."
Ed Yohnka with the ACLU of Illinois said the organization was "disgusted and concerned" upon finding out that ICE agents would be equipped with these new devices.
"Giving these agents a concealed means of delivering this kind of terrible pain is just a recipe for further harm," he said.
The devices can deliver painful electric shocks. Known as the G.L.O.V.E., which stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, and are manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky, they're typically used by jails and police departments as a form of crowd control or to restrain violent patients. According to the notice, ICE plans to purchase the devices by March.
While the manufacturer warns the devices should not be used as punishment, Yonkha said he doesn't trust that ICE agents will follow that guidance.
"If you think about what we witnessed just in Chicago, we saw the excessive use of chemical agents. We saw the use of rubber bullets. We saw the use of weapons being pointed," he said. "To add onto that, not more training, but yet another damaging weapon, I think is something that is really troubling."
He said he thinks these devices are another tactic by the Trump administration to scare communities.
"I think what this is is an attempt at intimidation and, frankly, to try to subvert the will of the majority in a community like Chicago to bend it to this dystopian view of America that this administration seems hell-bent on forcing on all of us," he said.
