Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released details on August 27 of a $16.7 million no-bid contract with Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky, for 6,000 pairs of wearable gloves designed to deliver electric shocks. The manufacturer refers to these devices as “Conductive Distraction and Deescalation Devices,” which are essentially wearable tasers.
While the company advertises the gloves as a safe “use-of-force option,” one critic observed that “Less than lethal doesn’t mean low risk.” The manufacturer recommends that subjects not be shocked for more than 15 seconds. This acquisition comes as a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) documents more than 1,200 incidents of abuse by ICE agents.
These gloves are described as part of the agency’s “arsenal of devices and policies” aimed at creating a “culture of fear” among all immigrants residing in the United States, regardless of their legal status. The report indicates that tens of thousands of individuals have been taken from streets or cars and transported to detention camps where dozens have died. Since January, ICE agents have reportedly shot 16 people, resulting in four fatalities. Masked agents driving unmarked cars have been involved in aggressive vehicular pursuits, causing serious crashes, and have reportedly “smashed their way into cars” while small children were present. Additionally, detention center employees have reportedly force-fed hunger-striking detainees.
The administration’s policy of deporting immigrants to destinations known to be “politically unstable and extraordinarily dangerous” is also publicized, contributing to this atmosphere of fear. To date, over 23,000 immigrants have been deported to 26 countries where they have no ties, no history, and no knowledge of local languages. These nations include the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, and Iran. The administration has recently increased its deportation flights to Haiti, a country largely controlled by terror gangs, a situation the United Nations’ human rights expert for Haiti bluntly called “insane.”
The perceived objective of fear is reportedly working within immigrant communities. Immigrants have heard of “horrific” conditions in detention camps, of young children left alone after masked agents removed their parents following traffic stops, and of immigrants being moved from Ohio to Florida to Louisiana, reportedly to prevent them from accessing their lawyers. Even Puerto Rican friends, who are U.S. citizens by birth, reportedly ask if they should always carry their passports. With the start of a new school year, immigrant students once again fear bullying from white students who tell them to “Go back home” or demand to “see their papers.” A survey of high school principals last year described a “climate of distress” faced by immigrant students. Recent studies indicate that the fear cultivated by immigration enforcement raids has negatively impacted the test scores of both foreign-born and U.S.-born Spanish speakers, and that any child whose parent is taken away potentially faces depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Steven Volk, Professor of History Emeritus at Oberlin College, states that fear is not an unintended byproduct but the “desired outcome” of the administration’s anti-immigrant policies. He suggests this places the United States in the company of some of the “most authoritarian regimes of the late 20th century,” specifically the military dictatorships of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile from the 1960s through the 1980s. Volk shared his personal experience living in Chile when General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the government in 1973, recalling that he and others who supported the democratically elected head of state, Salvador Allende, felt fear constantly. He described being aware they could be stopped, detained, or killed “for who we were,” rather than for any actions. As years passed, it became clear that anyone who “fell afoul of the regime” could be “disappeared” or targeted by agents. These Southern Cone countries, Volk explains, constructed “systems of terror” that combined a fear of the known with a fear of the unknown.
In the United States, the Trump administration reportedly advertises its ability to inflict suffering on immigrants daily, ensuring all immigrants are aware of the dangers they face. However, the unknown, uncertainty, and constantly changing rules and regulations are equally disruptive. Immigrants face questions like whether they will be detained for filing for a government benefit they are legally entitled to, or if U.S. citizens could be deported for incorrectly filling out naturalization papers, or if children could come home to an empty house because a parent could not convince a deputy sheriff of having a green card. Volk states it is challenging to enumerate all the “ethical, moral, and political failures” of a government that deliberately nurtures a culture of fear. He describes such a policy as “appallingly sadistic, undemocratic, and un-American,” adding that if fear is used to “cleanse the country of immigrants,” as xenophobic adviser Stephen Miller desires, the country risks becoming like the ancient image of the snake devouring its own tail, the ouroboros. Steven Volk taught Latin American history for 30 years and was recognized by the government of Chile in 2001 for his efforts in helping to restore democracy there.