1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

Multiple reputable news outlets have confirmed ICE is planning to spend up to $20 million on electric shock gloves, which deliver a debilitating shock directly to a person’s skin. I am writing to demand Congress immediately block this procurement. ICE already operates with minimal oversight and has adopted an official policy of releasing bodycam footage only when it is in ICE’s own “best interests.” Civil rights attorneys are warning that glove activation may be effectively invisible to the cameras There is no independent oversight mechanism that would flag misuse of the gloves. The manufacturer itself warns the gloves should not be used as punishment, against people exhibiting only verbal defiance, or on vulnerable populations, including children, pregnant women, the elderly, and the disabled. In ICE’s hands, these gloves will become a torture device, funded with taxpayer money. This comes at a time when more 50 people have died in ICE custody since this Republican administration took office, with zero accountability. It comes as a sitting U.S. senator was tear-gassed outside a detention facility. It comes as Congress’s own right to conduct unannounced inspections of ICE facilities has been restricted. An agency with a documented history of in-custody deaths, limited transparency, and restricted oversight should not be handed a weapon specifically designed to inflict pain, activated by a switch no camera can see. My wife and I demand Congress block the purchase and use of these gloves, conduct oversight hearings on ICE’s use of force policies, and restore mandatory bodycam transparency requirements for all ICE interactions.