The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) is preparing for officers to use electroshock gloves, known as GLOVEs, which emit an electric shock of approximately 380 volts, to subdue immigrants or people protesting during immigration operations.
According to information from Compliant Technologies, the company that produces such gloves, the equipment is activated by a wrist switch and the electrical shock disrupts muscle coordination and induces pain submission in a person, although it supposedly does not pierce the skin.
Clothing would be the only thing that could stop the effect of the glove, unlike traditional tasers, which can act through clothing and can even break the skin.
To prevent further harm to a person, manufacturers suggest that downloading apps last no longer than 15 seconds per use.
Although it does not cause the damage of a taser, the device causes temporary discomfort, and some people with chronic problems may face different effects.
The border czar, Tom Homan, stated that ICE agents will have training for the use of these devices that are already raising concerns among civil rights defenders.
“We have pepper spray, we have Taser guns,” he justified in an interview on Fox News. "The glove is the latest thing they are considering to help in situations like those seen in the videos from the last year and a half, fights in the street where officers are overwhelmed. This would be a tool they could use to get someone to cooperate."
Homan insisted that there will be training, but in recent months the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), on which ICE depends, has been under criticism for minimal training of thousands of new agents.
“It requires a lot of training,” Homan justified. "The implementation of these gloves in the field will take time. I think they are more useful than in a detention center, where detainees get out of control and fights break out. We'll see."
CNN reported that ICE intends to invest more than $20 million dollars to acquire the gloves that would be used in immigration operations.
