Arellano: Shock gloves on immigrants? Trump gifts his deportation goons a cowardly new tool

Just when President Trump’s efforts to deport immigrants his administration deems not the right kind — and you’re deluding yourself if you think it’s all about legality — news came this week that Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants to spend up to $20 million on electrically charged gloves so that its agents can more easily subdue people.

All they got to do is fiddle around on their gloves a la Iron Man to turn them on, place their hands on the local fruit lady or taco guy, and voilà! The person crumbles to the ground and gets hauled off to the hoosegow.

The official notice announcing the planned purchase describe the equipment as “a Conductive Distraction and De-escalation Device,” but let’s call it what it is:

The Department of Homeland Security plans to spend up to $20 million on gloves that deliver painful shocks to detainees.

The malicious mitts are just one item in the shopping cart of a xenophobic spending spree that the Trump administration can indulge in thanks in a new budget for immigration enforcement approved by Congress this June that exceeds the military spending of most countries. In August alone, a toxic alphabet soup of agencies — ICE, CBP, HSI, CIS and others — put out notices that they plan to spend up to $1.8 billion to shore themselves up.

Included in the wish list : $3 million on 9 mm Luger ammunition and $2 million for Glock pistols and accompanying modifications; $1 million for the renovation and rental of indoor firing ranges; $2 million in defibrillators. Over $100 million toward “Nonscheduled Chartered Passenger Air Transportation” just for immigrants who choose to self-deport. Over $300 million for new Border Patrol stations to replace three existing ones in Texas.