Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) remains in the spotlight for its excessive use of force, racial profiling, and another death in a detention center. As if that were not enough, they now want to spend $20 million to have officers use gloves that apply electric shocks to detainees.
The reactions of activists and legislators were immediate as these are agents who continue to operate masked and with total impunity, and who have shown that they do not hesitate to shoot immigrants and citizens alike.
La Opinión reported that “the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) raised alarm bells over ICE's plan to incorporate gloves capable of applying electric shocks during its immigration operations, considering that the tool could facilitate the use of force and increase the risk of abuse.”
As originally reported by the Associated Press, ICE plans to acquire thousands of the gloves known as G.L.O.V.E. so that agents have them before March 2027.
“The equipment, manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC, works like a conventional patrol glove until the agent activates a switch that releases a shock upon direct contact with the skin,” wrote La Opinión.
"The plan still requires ICE to finalize the acquisition process. But for the ACLU, the debate is already on the table: if agents will have a tool capable of causing pain with the push of a button, the question will be what controls will exist to prevent an immigration detention from ending in unnecessary use of force," the article added.
Citizens arrested and another death at Delaney Hall
This week, in separate incidents, ICE detained three US citizens, proving that no one is exempt from being intercepted. On August 10, officers in Falls Church, Virginia, accused Carolina Molina of using her car as a weapon, but video from a camera in the young woman's car shows that an officer pointed his gun at her.
Previously, in Norfolk, Virginia, ICE detained Brittany Ramírez Corona, another citizen, who arrived at an operation where her husband was detained. Although Brittany indicated that she was a citizen and provided documents, the agents insisted that they were “fake.”
In Atlanta, agents intervened on John Phillips while he was boarding a plane after confusing him with a British man who has the same name and date of birth.
And at the Delaney Hall detention center, a Guatemalan immigrant died after suffering seizures. With this death there are now more than 53 deaths since Trump assumed his second term in January 2025.
More airport arrests
BBC News Mundo, via La Opinión, reported on the case of a young Venezuelan woman detained at the Fort Lauderdale airport despite having a pending asylum case since 2017.
Claudia Carolina Rodríguez Caglianone, 28 years old and 9 of those living in the United States, was detained for two months and was released thanks to public pressure and the intervention of the Democratic congresswoman from Florida, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
“His case illustrates what several immigration organizations and lawyers denounce as an increase in detentions at US airports, including those of people with expired visas but open immigration processes, such as pending applications for asylum and permanent residence,” the article says.
And he adds that "according to an analysis carried out by the NBC network of figures compiled by the Deportation Data Project, from the beginning of Trump's second term on January 20, 2025 until March 10, 2026, ICE made 568 arrests at airports or their surroundings; five times more than in the same period the previous year, when 108 were recorded."
Traveling with advance parole can trigger three- and 10-year bans
La Opinion reported that “the United States Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) this Thursday changed an interpretation in force since 2012 and determined that leaving the country with an advance travel permit, known as advance parole, can count as an “exit” for the purposes of the three- and 10-year immigration bans for irregular presence.”
For more than a decade, the 2012 precedent established that a temporary departure from the United States carried out with advance parole did not constitute a “departure” that would activate the prohibitions for irregular presence.
The 1996 immigration law, enacted by Democrat Bill Clinton, established, among other things, prohibitions on re-entry into the United States for 3 and 10 years for undocumented immigrants who left the country and attempted to return. The punishment depends on the accumulated time living undocumented in the United States. These 3- and 10-year bans have prevented many undocumented immigrants petitioned by citizens or permanent residents from being legalized.
The article points out that the use of advance parole remains in force, but “a trip abroad with advance parole can be considered an exit for the purposes of immigration law, even if the person later returns under that same permit.”
“The specialized firm Murthy Law Firm warned this Thursday that people who are considering traveling with advance parole after August 13, particularly those with a history of irregular presence, should evaluate the consequences of their case before leaving the United States,” the note added.
Expedited deportation of an immigrant with parole
The Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C. Circuit. It paved the way for the fast-track deportation of thousands of immigrants on parole that former President Joe Biden protected from deportation.
“In this way, the government of President Donald Trump will be able to continue with its policy of canceling the program and process immigrants under such protection for their deportation process, even in an accelerated manner,” reported.
Quote of the week:
"ICE has spent the last year showing this country that it is resorting to force too quickly. Now they will be able to deliver electric shocks with the touch of a button that perhaps no one else can see they press...Having gloves that can so easily be used to cause terrible pain in encounters is a recipe for harm to the public," said Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy director of public safety projects at the ACLU.
