ICE published notice of plan to buy up to $20M in electric-shock compliance gloves via no-bid contract

On August 10, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement published a notice announcing plans to spend up to $20 million on "conductive distraction and de-escalation devices" — known as the G.L.O.V.E. (Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter) — through a no-bid contract with Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky, with purchases targeted for completion by March. The notice said the solicitation for the no-bid award could be published as early as August 14. The gloves function as ordinary patrol gear until an officer flips a switch to activate an electrical mode that delivers a shock directly to a person's skin.

Compliant Technologies' own materials warn the device should not be used as punishment, against people showing only "verbal defiance or belligerence," or on high-risk populations including children, pregnant women, and elderly or disabled people. DHS did not immediately comment when asked by the Associated Press. Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director on policing at the ACLU, said ICE has spent the past year "showing this country they are too quick to use force" and that the devices let officers "deploy electric shocks with the slight push of a button that maybe nobody else can see them do."

The purchase would reportedly be the largest sale of the device to date for its manufacturer. By routing the acquisition through a no-bid contract rather than competitive bidding, ICE avoided the outside scrutiny that a normal procurement process would apply to a device whose own maker cautions against use on the vulnerable populations frequently swept up in immigration enforcement.

Updates

2026-08-21 — House Democrats demanded DHS halt the gloves procurement [3]

Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, Lou Correa (D-Calif.), ranking member of its Border Security & Enforcement Subcommittee, and Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), ranking member of its Oversight, Investigations & Accountability Subcommittee, sent a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin demanding the department immediately halt ICE's plan to spend up to $20 million on the gloves.

2026-08-27 — ICE awarded a $16.7M no-bid contract; 16 Senate Democrats separately demanded it be scrapped [4]

ICE signed the no-bid contract with Compliant Technologies for 6,000 gloves at $2,495 apiece — a $16.7 million award, below the up-to-$20 million originally announced — and formally posted it on a federal database. Separately, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and 15 other Democratic senators sent ICE's acting director a letter the same day urging it to abandon the purchase, citing risks to proportionality, medical safety, constitutional rights and oversight, and demanding disclosure of the agency's rules for authorized use, safeguards and deployment-review procedures. A DHS spokesperson called the senators' pushback "despicable and a deliberate attempt to undermine and endanger our officers" and said ICE's use of the devices would be consistent with law enforcement policy and standards.