1. United States
2. Iowa
3. Letter

Stop ICE From Weaponizing Fear: Oppose the Shock Glove Purchase I’m writing because I’m sickened by DHS’s plan to buy electric shock gloves for ICE officers, and I need you to oppose it. This isn’t a small equipment upgrade. It’s a concealed weapon whose whole point is to make people hurt and afraid, activated with the push of a button so nobody even sees it happen. That’s not safety. That’s intimidation. Here’s what we know: DHS wants to spend $10-20 million on these gloves, called the G.L.O.V.E., without even opening it up to competitive bidding. They deliver up to 380 volts straight into someone’s skin. And this isn’t hypothetical. A man died in 2024 after being shocked 27 times with these same gloves at a Kentucky jail — shocks that lasted 45 and 99 seconds each, way past the manufacturer’s own 15-second limit. An internal investigation called it unnecessary pain and a serious health risk. In South Carolina, two officers were criminally charged for using these gloves to beat and shock an inmate. The company’s own manual warns the device can cause sudden death and says it should never be used as punishment — and it’s already being used exactly that way. ICE agents have misused tasers hundreds of times over the past year. They are not well trained or well supervised with the weapons they already carry. Giving that same workforce a hidden pain device, with zero public plan for training, oversight, or medical follow-up, isn’t making anyone safer. It’s reckless, and it tells me this is about scaring people, not law enforcement. I’m asking you to: • Publicly oppose this purchase and demand it be paused. • Call for a DHS briefing to Congress on training, oversight, and safety before this goes any further. • Support blocking funding for it until real oversight exists. I want to know where you stand on this. Please respond. A Concerned Constituent