U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) just gave Democrats something new to be mad about. A notice published in a federal contracting database Thursday confirmed that ICE has awarded a $16.7 million no-bid contract award to Kentucky-based Compliant Technologies LLC to supply 6,000 pairs of electric-shock gloves, along with support equipment and services, over the next six months.
The way Democrats are describing the gloves, you’d think ICE just invented a medieval torture device. But the truth is that local jails and police departments have already used similar devices for years, and the republic somehow survived and our Constitution remains intact.
ICE says officers will reach for the gloves in "high-tension environments," specifically during arrests. "It will be used when a subject is actively or passively resisting and an officer needs to gain control quickly to prevent injuries to both parties," the agency's notice explained.
Sounds good to me. Unless Democrats want ICE using firearms…
ICE argues the gloves will do more than force compliance in a single confrontation. The agency says the shocks will help "maintain control over inmates and prevent aggression or escape attempts," help officers restrain detainees who conceal their hands, support crowd control efforts, and help avoid "more severe force," such as firearms.
Right? Democrats should think this is a good thing.
The notice added that glove use would follow "approved policy, training, and accountability standards," though ICE offered no further details about what those standards actually require.
That last detail didn't seem to matter to Senate Democrats.
Hours before the contract notice went public, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) led a letter pressing ICE's acting director to scrap the purchase. Cortez Masto and 15 other Senate Democrats signed on, questioning why ICE needs the devices at all. They insisted that ICE make its training procedures public and spell out exactly how glove use would be tracked and reviewed internally.
They didn't stop there.
The senators wrote that the device "presents substantial risks if deployed during civil arrests — even more so if it is deployed without clear limits, appropriate training, and comprehensive oversight." They went on to argue that "the blatant and tragic misuse of force in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Houston, Maine, and other locations around the country raises significant skepticism about the agency's professional capability to safely deploy a new tool that could be used to harm Americans without cause."
Again, would they rather ICE just resort to using firearms?
Civil rights groups have leveled similar claims for months without offering evidence, insisting ICE officers already operate with little oversight or accountability while enforcing President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
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The Department of Homeland Security wasn't in an apologetic mood. "Sanctuary politicians attempting to ban our federal law enforcement from any safety equipment is despicable and a deliberate attempt to undermine and endanger our officers," the agency said in a statement. That response lands because it happens to be true.
Here's what Democrats never seem to grapple with: ICE officers have been dragged by vehicles, pelted with projectiles, and assaulted while cleaning up the mess Joe Biden created. Yet the moment the agency looks for a nonlethal way to keep both officers and detainees safer, it becomes a five-alarm scandal. Democrats appear to expect ICE officers to absorb assaults or just not enforce the law, I guess.
From where I sit, ICE is trying to keep officers, detainees, and the public safer without reaching for guns first. One might think Democrats would be all for it. I guess not, because the same lawmakers who claim to care about accountability and de-escalation are furious that ICE is trying to deliver both.
Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.
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