ICE Is Getting More Power with Less Training

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This week, we published two sets of records with important details about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is carrying out the Trump administration’s agenda with more force and less training.

What the Army’s testing report tells us about ICE’s new shock gloves

Our first story, reported by the Associated Press, is about ICE’s controversial new “shock gloves.” In August 2026, ICE signed a $16.7 million contract with Compliant Technologies LLC, to purchase gloves that can shock people. We obtained an Army report on the effectiveness of the gloves, which raises serious concerns about ICE’s plan to use them as part of immigration enforcement.

Experts have warned against giving ICE — an agency that has been scrutinized for excessive and deadly use of force — the Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter (GLOVE). The Army’s report makes it clear that the GLOVE is exceptionally painful, explaining it “works by overloading the peripheral nerve endings in the epidermis, causing a neuro-peripheral interference (NPI). The body perceives the NPI as pain.”

The Army’s testing focused on “compliance time,” or how long it took officers to restrain someone when they were using the GLOVE. However, the Army does not appear to have tested for any health impacts. Instead, they trusted that the equipment had the “safety certificates to be employed by military forces,” according to the report. A pending lawsuit in Kentucky claims that a man died after being shocked with a Taser and the GLOVE.

Compliant Technologies LLC advises that the GLOVE should not be used on small children, pregnant women, the elderly, or disabled people — but it is unclear whether ICE’s policies would permit using it against members of those groups, who officers regularly encounter.

“It’s too easy for this to get misused, against a population that doesn’t pose a threat,” ICE’s former acting director John Sandweg told MS NOW.

ICE is partnering with more local police — and giving officers less training

We also obtained internal ICE emails, first reported on this week by the Washington Post, that show the agency cut training for local police it has partnered with to make immigration arrests. The course went from four to five weeks to a single week of instruction — a cut of 75 to 80 percent. The training scaled back the instruction that is most important to understand people’s rights and legal statuses.

ICE has partnered with more than 2,600 law enforcement agencies across the country through its 287(g) program. The Trump administration revived the program’s “task force model” last year, allowing local police to interrogate, arrest, and charge people suspected of being in the country unlawfully.

The emails show that ICE scaled back those officers’ instruction on citizenship and nationality law, immigration status, and removal charges. It also removed training on scenarios that officers might face in the field. The records do not say who ordered the cuts or why — simply that the staff were told the training had to be one week in length.

“More power should come with more preparation,” said our Executive Director Chioma Chukwu. “When officers don’t understand the laws they’re enforcing, people can lose their freedom, be separated from their families, or even lose their lives.”

On the records

What we know about President Trump’s corruption

This week, we compiled an overview of the ways Trump has profited off the presidency at the expense of everyday Americans — and how we’re fighting back.

More than half of all Americans say they are currently struggling to afford gas and groceries, but Trump made more than $2 billion during the first year of his second term. While Trump’s personal wealth has ballooned, 95 percent of Americans feel that the U.S. is experiencing an affordability crisis. And 81 percent of Americans believe that corruption in government is increasing their personal costs.

We’ve filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and, when necessary, sued to shed more light on corruption in the second Trump administration. We are in active litigation to learn more about the jet the Trump administration was “gifted” from Qatar and Trump’s scheme to charge Truth Social subscribers up to $100,000 monthly for early access to his posts. We filed FOIA requests to learn more about the funding and construction of the president’s multi-million dollar White House ballroom and other potential instances of corruption in the administration. And that’s just the start of it — we are digging into so much more.

We want to know what conflicts of interest may exist, what Trump is promising to those who donate to his and his family’s businesses and building projects, and what federal agencies are doing to try to stop Trump’s schemes.

American Oversight in the news

Emails show how ICE trimmed training for deputized officers (Washington Post)
Army study found shock gloves purchased by ICE cause pain, compliance and fear (Associated Press)
Trump and his former co-defendants seek delay on Jack Smith report hearing (MS Now)
Election deniers have Trump’s ear on a voting machine conspiracy (The Washington Sun)
ICE is everywhere and acting with impunity (New Yorker)