The Trump administration will spend up to $20 million putting CTG-5 electric shock gloves, capable of fatal injury, into routine immigration arrests and deportations. ICE simultaneously orders field agents to meet a 2,000-body daily target while equipping those agents to send potentially fatal electrical current through the marks whose arrests fulfill that quota.
Art Credit: Andy Warhol, Electric Chair, 1964. Warhol transformed the American execution chamber into an enduring image of state-administered electrical death.
ICE now seeks a contact electrical-force weapon capable of fatally electrocuting quota “targets.”
The Department of Homeland Security will spend up to $20 million on the mass distribution of CTG-5 electric shock gloves to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for routine arrests and mass deportations. On August 13, 2026, White House border czar Tom Homan defended the CTG-5 procurement, arguing that ICE agents could compel compliance before resorting to deadly force. Homan’s admission leaves ICE defending a potentially fatal electrical weapon while ICE still lacks completed training protocols or binding rules restricting when agents can shock targeted humans,
Electric-chair electrocution protocols place electrodes on the head and leg to transmit lethal electrical current through the body. Judicial electrocution became largely obsolete after lethal injection displaced the electric chair amid documented burns and severe pain. Electrocution can cause death through ventricular fibrillation or asystole, as well as respiratory arrest. A forensic review of 43 judicial electrocutions documented characteristic burns beneath the scalp and right-calf electrodes. Electrical current traversing the thorax (chest) directly threatens cardiac conduction. Electrode placement determines which tissues and organs fall within that potentially lethal electrical pathway.
The manufacturer specifies 324 to 362 volts and a maximum pulse current of 0.7 to 1.2 amperes. Each discharge lasts 114 to 116 microseconds, with approximately 29 to 30 pulses delivered every second.
Cheek contact delivers repeated electrical discharges beside the eye and across nearby facial nerves and muscles. Electrical-injury cases document cataracts and retinal damage, including detachment and atrophy. Cases also document optic-nerve damage and permanent vision loss. Neck or upper chest contact places electrical pulses over nerves, respiratory structures, and the thorax. Documented injuries include myocardial damage capable of progressing to ventricular fibrillation, cardiac arrest, and death.
Compliant Technologies prohibit electrical shocks from imposing as punishment or torture and bars use for verbal defiance alone. The manufacturer also warns against shocking children and people with serious disabilities because electrical current creates heightened medical risks for those populations. A Kentucky wrongful-death complaint alleges Madison County jail personnel shocked Jonathan Mansfield 27 times with the same technology in 2024.
Because agents would keep issued CTG-5 gloves home when off-duty, the electrical weapon will enter households with spouses, children, relatives, and visitors. A small child can put on the CTG-5 and activate a discharge without understanding the danger. Electrical current from that activation can trigger ventricular fibrillation, respiratory arrest, permanent injury, or death.
Iran has already used direct-contact electrical weapons against detainees. Amnesty International reported in March 2025 that IRGC Basij personnel shocked detained boys’ genitals with stun guns during the 2022 Woman Life Freedom uprising. Amnesty classifies direct-contact electric-shock weapons as inherently abusive and warns that prolonged application can cause death.
Madison County Detention Center investigators documented CTG-5 shocks lasting 45 and 99 seconds, far beyond the manufacturer’s recommended 15-second maximum. ICE already uses WRAP full-body restraints during deportations, while DHS civil-rights reviewers questioned ICE training and policies governing their use in 2023. Associated Press reporters identified 12 restraint-associated deaths in local police or jail custody during the preceding decade.
ICE personnel have already used substantial physical force against people restrained or driven to the ground. In December 2025, video showed an agent pinning a woman face-down in Minneapolis snow and dragging her through the street. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said ICE personnel did not appear to take steps to de-escalate before the confrontation.
ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents tackled 79-year-old U.S. citizen Rafie Ollah Shouhed at his Van Nuys car wash on September 9, 2025. The takedown broke Shouhed’s ribs, damaged his elbow, and caused chest trauma accompanied by symptoms of traumatic brain injury. Agents then detained the wounded elderly citizen for 12 hours despite the serious physical harm. Shouhed was released without charges and taken to a hospital for treatment.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cut more than 240 academy hours, or 40 percent, during the 2025–2026 hiring surge, reducing firearms, legal, fitness, and scenario instruction. Former academy instructor Ryan Schwank testified that recruits could commit unjustified force, mishandle firearms, and still graduate. The agency dismissed at least 200 recruits while background investigations remained incomplete or delayed, Reuters reported. ICE restored 71-day academy classes on July 1, 2026.
ICE admitted personnel into federal law-enforcement training before uncovering disqualifying information. Officials identified two Georgia trainees as suspected MS-13 members, based on their tattoos. The agency fired at least five others only after finding active arrest warrants.
Newly hired personnel also received enforcement assignments before ICE completed required background investigations. AP found hires carrying firearms and exercising federal arrest powers while screening remained unfinished. Andrew Penland joined the agency after a county insurer paid $75,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that he falsely arrested a woman on a felony charge. Two additional hires faced lawsuits alleging unlawful or excessive force.
Associated Press reporters examined ICE officer David Brouillette’s history. Relatives said Brouillette had serious mental-health problems since childhood and should never have received a badge and gun. Several relatives described longstanding violence toward women; one gave AP a voicemail threatening to slit her throat. AP reporters could not determine the circumstances surrounding Brouillette’s hiring.
Associated Press reporters identified at least 24 ICE employees and contractors charged with crimes since 2020; courts convicted at least 17. Prosecutors brought cases involving physical violence, sexual abuse, corruption, and criminal misuse of federal power. AP reporters found some of the gravest criminal conduct among veteran ICE employees and supervisors rather than new recruits.
On July 7, 2026, an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston. Six days later, an ICE officer fatally shot 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. Relatives identified Brouillette as Durán Guerrero’s shooter; AP reporters said Brouillette acknowledged the shooting to family members.
Stephen Miller, President Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor, raised ICE’s daily arrest target from 1,000 to 3,000 in May 2025. Miller directed ICE leadership to arrest anyone without legal status. By July 2026, officials were told 2,000 daily arrests was the new enforcement standard. DHS reported about 51,000 July arrests, ICE’s highest monthly total.
ICE agents and officers use the term “bodies” as shorthand for people they apprehend and process. Miller’s numerical quota converts those bodies into a daily count. The quota, therefore, recasts each person ICE pursues as a “mark” whose capture moves the agency toward its target.
The Department of Homeland Security will place a potentially lethal electroshock weapon in the hands of ICE agents enforcing arrest quotas. The same hand that forcibly seizes a human “target” can send electrical current through the body at the tap of a button, After documented failures in screening, training, and firearms judgment, DHS will give thousands of agents immediate control over a weapon that can turn a touch into blindness, cardiac arrest, or death.
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Sources
Associated Press, August 12, 2026 — “ICE’s plan to give officers electric shock gloves draws outrage and fears of misuse.” Procurement range, CTG-5 operation, manufacturer restrictions, Jonathan Mansfield wrongful-death allegations, 27 shocks, and Madison County Detention Center findings documenting 45- and 99-second applications.
Associated Press, August 13, 2026 — “White House border czar defends ICE electric shock gloves as tools to avoid deadly force.” Tom Homan’s public defense of the planned purchase and ICE’s preparation of training protocols and deployment policies.
Associated Press, October 14, 2025 — “ICE’s use of full-body restraints during deportations raises concerns over inhumane treatment.” Nigerian detainee accounts, prolonged WRAP restraint, the 2023 DHS civil-rights review, 12 restraint-associated deaths, and $268,523 in DHS purchases from Safe Restraints Inc.
Amnesty International, March 2025 — Global report on electric-shock equipment and law-enforcement abuse. Documentation of IRGC Basij personnel using stun guns against detained boys during Iran’s 2022 Woman Life Freedom uprising and Amnesty’s findings concerning direct-contact electric-shock weapons.
Reuters, April 22, 2026 — “What do the numbers show about Trump’s immigration enforcement record?” Stephen Miller’s quota of at least 3,000 arrests per day and instruction to target anyone without legal status.
Stateline, August 10, 2026 — “With new tactics, ICE reaches new high in monthly arrests.” DHS reporting of approximately 51,000 July ICE arrests and the Trump administration’s announced goal of 2,000 arrests per day.
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