US ICE grants $16.7m contract to buy thousands of electric shock gloves

WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency granted a $16.7 million contract to buy 6,000 pairs of electric shock gloves for officers in the field despite human rights advocates having raised alarm about the plans when they were revealed earlier this month.

A notice on a federal database said that ICE, which has been the face of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, entered into a no-bid contract to purchase the gloves from Kentucky-based firm Compliant Technologies.

The notice said 6,000 of the devices, which can give painful electric shocks and aim to disrupt an individual's capacity to respond, will be bought with support equipment and services over the next six months.

The website of the Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, said this month ICE planned to buy CTG-5 Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, or GLOVE units.

The American Civil Liberties Union said that giving immigration agents "a concealed means of delivering terrible pain is a recipe for more harm to the public and less ​accountability."

⁠DHS described the gloves as "a Conductive Distraction and De-escalation Device which ​will be issued to Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement Removal Operations officers ​and agents."

Fatal shootings by ICE agents of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota earlier this year and ​concerns by rights ​groups about ⁠conditions in ICE detention have sparked protests.

Over 50 people have ​died in ICE custody nationwide since Trump took office ​early ⁠last year.

Trump says his immigration crackdown aims to improve domestic security.

Rights groups call it discriminatory, saying it ⁠violates ​free speech and due process rights while also ​creating an unsafe environment, particularly for ethnic minorities, who have raised concerns about racial profiling .

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Christian Martinez; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Lincoln Feast)