ICE

The Guardian - Plans to supply Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers with special gloves that can deliver electric shocks have alarmed experts and drawn scrutiny amid some high-profile lawsuits over their use in local correctional facilities.

In one extreme case, a 43-year-old man died after allegedly being shocked 40 times by officers with a combination of the gloves and a Taser in a county jail in Kentucky, and the man’s widow is suing authorities.

Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of ICE, published plans to spend up to $20m (£15m) to outfit ICE officers by March of next year with the controversial gloves, which are also used in various police departments and some schools.

Civil rights advocates protest that the federal agency’s use of force during Donald Trump’s immigration crackdowns already lacks proper oversight.

ICE “is putting these [gloves] in the hands of an agency that has dropped its hiring standards, its training, its background requirements in its hiring spree”, Sarah Mehta, deputy director of government affairs in the equality division of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said. MORE