## ICE moves to equip officers with electric-shock gloves

**ICE is moving to buy wearable electric-shock devices for the officers who carry out immigration arrests.** Adding a new force option to the equipment officers carry would require the agency to settle when the devices may be deployed, what force standards govern them, how officers are trained and who reviews each use. [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/ice-electric-shock-gloves-85ff746d3e0ee5f39e7a9a3f1f576252), [Newsweek](https://www.newsweek.com/ice-agents-to-wear-electric-shock-gloves-how-they-could-be-used-compliant-technologies-12313228)

**404 Media obtained the manual for the gloves,** which details how the devices are meant to be used in the field. [404 Media](https://www.404media.co/heres-the-manual-for-ices-electric-shock-gloves/)

**Spanish-language coverage also digs into how the agency intends the gloves to be used,** placing the purchase inside a broader pattern of increasingly aggressive tactics during immigration operations. [El País](https://elpais.com/us/migracion/2026-08-12/guantes-con-descargas-electricas-para-someter-a-migrantes-el-nuevo-equipo-de-un-ice-cada-vez-mas-agresivo.html), [El Mañana de Nuevo Laredo](https://elmanana.com.mx/global/2026/8/12/ice-dotara-a-sus-agentes-de-guantes-para-dar-descargas-electricas-durante-operativos-migratorios-178423.html)

**The gloves were recently demonstrated in a live TV stunt in Argentina.** The security minister of Córdoba tested the glove on himself and fell to his knees. “You really can’t stand it,” he said afterwards. [El Doce TV](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUiubmWE6SM/?hl=en)

## Go deeper on Compliant Technologies, the company that makes the gloves

We got curious about the company, [Compliant Technologies LLC](https://www.complianttechnologies.net/), their contract, and their product, so we used our "computers and elbow grease" approach to look into it:

**The contract:** It appears the agency intends to buy them without competition. A [DHS procurement notice](https://apfs-cloud.dhs.gov/record/74524/public-print/) published Aug. 10, 2026 describes a sole-source award for the G.L.O.V.E. device, with delivery by March 2027. The paper trail runs through ICE's Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs at Fort Benning, Georgia, which posted a sources-sought notice for "conductive energy weapons" dated Feb. 17, 2026 and named the ICE contacts as Daniel Correia and Robert V. Roberts.

**The company:** The vendor is a [veteran-owned firm](https://www.highergov.com/awardee/compliant-technologies-llc-12545130/) in Lexington, Kentucky that self-describes as an "Exclusive Distributor" for conducted electrical weapon technology. We could find no prior federal contracts for the company in [USASpending.gov](https://www.usaspending.gov) records — the only federal assistance we located was a $1,000 COVID-era EIDL advance in 2020.

**The product:** The [AP described](https://apnews.com/article/ice-electric-shock-gloves-85ff746d3e0ee5f39e7a9a3f1f576252) the gloves as "manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky," but the company's [HigherGov filing](https://www.highergov.com/awardee/compliant-technologies-llc-12545130/) lists it as "Exclusive Distributor" and the G.L.O.V.E.'s first-named inventor is Zhiyong Jiang, a Chinese national who supplies police equipment to China's Ministry of Public Security, according to [U.S. Patent 12,326,321 B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US12326321B2/en) ("Glove Adapted to Dispense Pulsed Electric Current to a Human's Skin"), and the co-inventor is Compliant founder Jeff Niklaus.

According to our research, Jiang is senior engineer and general manager of Shenzhen Senxunda Electronic Technology Co. Ltd. (深圳市森讯达电子技术有限公司). A [profile on a Chinese police equipment portal](https://cpspew.com/news/258083.html) identifies the firm as a Ministry of Public Security–approved supplier whose products serve China's "national stability and counter-terrorism front." The Senxunda catalog maps cleanly onto Compliant Technologies' line: "police arrest glove" to the G.L.O.V.E. "acoustic-optical riot dispersal shield" to the sound shield, "electronic action restraint" to the E-Band and E-Vest.

Niklaus told the story himself in June 2024, on an [alt-media podcast](https://sarahwestall.com/) episode hosted by Sarah Westall. He named the inventor as a Chinese man who had been a Shaolin monk before working for law enforcement "like the DEA."

**The expert:** The [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/ice-electric-shock-gloves-85ff746d3e0ee5f39e7a9a3f1f576252) interviewed Dr. John Peters, president of the Institute for Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, who said the glove felt "like a bee sting." Peters is listed on Compliant Technologies' own [references page](https://www.complianttechnologies.net/references) as its "Use of Force Expert." The AP did not mention the connection.

Peters' résumé compounds the potential conflicts of interest. He served as chairman of the board and vice president at Reliapon Police Products, a non-lethal weapons manufacturer, according to his [expert witness profile](https://www.expertinstitute.com/experts/dr-john-graybill-peters-3798/). His [CV](https://www.aele.org/peters.pdf) lists "statistical data analysis of TASER® voluntary self-exposures and field uses." His institute promotes "[excited delirium](https://www.themarshallproject.org/records/542-excited-delirium)," a diagnosis not approved by the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, or the World Health Organization, and not included in the DSM — and called a "sham" by civil rights groups in a [Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review analysis](https://journals.law.harvard.edu/crcl/police-call-it-excited-delirium-civil-rights-groups-call-it-a-sham/).

## Cities and counties choose opposing paths on ICE cooperation

**Nixa, Missouri, approved an agreement to train its police officers to carry out certain federal immigration functions during ordinary patrol work, and a county government in Texas is moving the same direction.** Under these arrangements, local officers get federal training and access to federal resources when immigration questions come up during a traffic stop or arrest. In Liberty County, Texas, commissioners signed off for one precinct, with others expected to follow. [KY3](https://ky3.com/2026/08/12/nixa-city-council-votes-join-ice-enforcement-program),

**Recovered Factory context:** According to state reports processed by Recovered Factory, in 2025, Nixa, Missouri rarely stopped Hispanic drivers, but searched and arrested them at significantly higher rates than other races, though the small number of encounters means these are fairly volatile figures. In keeping with a statewide pattern where Hispanic drivers are searched the most while found with contraband the least, Nixa’s searches of Hispanic drivers reportedly yielded no contraband at all. [Missouri Vehicle Stops](https://vsr.recoveredfactory.net/en/agency/nixa-police-dept)

**Other places are pulling the other way:** Mankato, Minnesota, made its immigration-enforcement limits permanent. Alachua County, Florida, a state where 287(g) participation is mandatory, passed a resolution warning that discriminatory enforcement erodes public trust in police. And Massachusetts restricted some state and local cooperation while barring new deputization agreements. These measures can limit what local governments do to assist ICE, but state and city law cannot stop federal officers from operating in most public places. [KEYC](https://keyc.com/2026/08/12/mankato-city-council-adopts-permanent-immigration-enforcement-policies), [CommonWealth Beacon](https://commonwealthbeacon.org/the-codcast/what-massachusettss-new-ice-law-protects-and-what-it-doesnt)

Recovered Factory runs [287(g) Watch](https://287g.recoveredfactory.net), a site that tracks these agreements, but ICE has not updated their 287(g) roster data in almost four weeks. We’ve emailed them multiple times now but have yet to hear back.

## Expanded detention and removal powers strain the courts

**ICE's expanded mandatory-detention policy denies bond hearings to people arrested inside the country** and the resulting wave of habeas corpus petitions is piling up in federal court. Judges have repeatedly found against the policy, while the litigation itself consumes court staff and judicial time; transfers between distant detention sites can cut people off from their lawyers and families in the middle of those cases. [The New Republic](https://newrepublic.com/post/214149/donald-trump-mass-deportations-overwhelming-courts), [American Bazaar](https://americanbazaaronline.com/2026/08/11/courts-overwhelmed-by-lawsuits-as-ice-detention-intensifies-486149)

**The government has also activated a long-dormant specialized removal process, even as most people in immigration proceedings have no lawyer** because there is no right to appointed counsel in immigration court. A New York City worker whose path ran from ICE detention through a removal order to an eventual grant of asylum shows how custody decisions and the merits of a case can travel on separate, contradictory tracks. [Human Rights Watch](https://hrw.org/news/2026/08/10/us-activates-long-unused-deportation-court), [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/new-york-city-council-immigration-arrest-protests-5f7613c92afacdced21f37075c0a4fe3), [Gothamist](https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-immigrant-whose-ice-detention-drew-criticism-in-high-places-gets-asylum)

## Around the system

- DHS abandoned plans to convert a warehouse complex in Socorro, Texas, near El Paso, into a major ICE detention and training center, and is transferring the properties for sale. The reversal follows sustained local opposition and questions about water, wastewater and emergency-response capacity. [El Paso Matters](https://elpasomatters.org/2026/08/11/dhs-to-sell-socorro-texas-ice-warehouses-cancel-detention-center-plans), [Noticias 48](https://noticias48knvo.com/la-congresista-escobar-anuncia-que-los-almacenes-de-socorro-ya-no-seran-utilizados-por-ice)

- Scrutiny of Delaney Hall, the immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, widened this week through a state civil-rights investigation, fresh reporting on conditions inside and renewed political demands that it close. [News 12 New Jersey](https://newjersey.news12.com/2026/08/11/state-leaders-call-for-delaney-hall-to-close-citing-poor-conditions-inside-the-facility/3JwywXqKWQmSnV2gnVhr7w)

- Cases in federal court are testing how far the government can go in seizing and forensically searching travelers' phones and laptops at the border: one judge found a phone search lacked the individualized suspicion required, and another ordered limited discovery into how a journalist's devices were handled. [The American Conservative](https://theamericanconservative.com/the-government-faces-unreasonable-search-and-seizure-challenges-in-virginia),

- New guidance from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services broadens when officers may suggest DNA evidence in family-based immigration cases, raising the practical question of when families will feel pressed into genetic testing to prove a relationship. [Uno TV](https://unotv.com/us/inmigracion-us/uscis-nueva-politica-adn)

- A new economic model estimates how lifting the cap on green cards for workers in science, technology, engineering and math fields would affect workers, employers and the wider economy. [Penn Wharton Budget Model](https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/p/2026-08-11-the-economic-and-fiscal-effects-of-uncapping-stem-green-cards)

*Note: The "upcoming" August 24 item about application fees originally included an accurate but confusing sentence about comment dates and was re-written for clarity going forward.*

*Clarification: The emailed edition cited U.S. Patent 12,326,321 B2 but linked to its 2022 published application. The link above now points to the granted patent.*