White House border czar Tom Homan defended Immigration and Customs Enforcement's plan to equip officers with gloves that deliver electric shocks, asserting they are a tool to help officers avoid using deadly force.
"It's another device to help someone get compliant when they are not," Homan said in an interview Thursday on Fox News Channel's “Fox & Friends.” "You can't just go from 0 to 100, right, and the first thing you go for is lethal force."
Homan's remarks marked the Trump administration's initial public defense of ICE's intention to spend up to $20 million on thousands of "conductive distraction and de-escalation devices." Manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC, the devices are known as the G.L.O.V.E., an acronym for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, and have seen use by some correctional facilities and police departments in recent years.
The plan has faced strong opposition from civil rights organizations, Democratic members of Congress, and some use-of-force experts. Critics point to instances where ICE agents have been accused of excessive force during operations related to President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement initiatives. Since last year, at least six individuals have been fatally shot by immigration enforcement agents.
Homan contended that the gloves could help avert such fatal encounters by providing ICE officers with an option less lethal than firearms, akin to Tasers or pepper spray, for potentially violent situations in the field and within detention centers. He indicated that the deployment of the gloves by ICE officers would be some time away, as the agency is still developing training protocols and related policies.
In Bardstown, Kentucky, Nelson County Jailer Justin Hall stated that his agency began using similar gloves four years ago to manage inmates who are out of control. He explained that, unlike Tasers, the shocks from these gloves do not incapacitate individuals, cause them to fall, or leave contact marks or burns. Hall estimated he has experienced the shock more than 10 times during training, describing the pain as intense but temporary, ceasing once contact is broken. He noted that the gloves have been used sparingly but serve as an effective initial deterrent when de-escalation methods fail.
"It's just a safer way. It's safer on the inmate. It's safer on the staff. And most of the time, most of the time we get compliance," Hall said. "It's been a great tool for our facility."
Geoffrey Alpert, a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina specializing in police use-of-force, advised that the devices warrant broader study to ensure departments have clear guidelines for their application. He suggested that ICE might benefit from a smaller initial purchase, given the limited understanding of the gloves' effectiveness and potential issues. "You are wholesaling these to a group of officers who may not be trained in other strategies like de-escalation or trained to interact with the public in non-enforcement ways, like most local police officers are," Alpert said. "User error is almost predictable at some level. The tech may be fine, but let's take a minute and make sure that it is used in an appropriate custom and practice."