California bans agents from using electrocution gloves after ICE reveals plans to equip agents | California

California passed a law Tuesday banning local, state and federal law enforcement officers from using gloves that could deliver painful electric shocks to people.

The ban on impact gloves will go into effect next year and remain in effect until 2030. It comes weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) decided to equip its agents with the gloves, designed to gain compliance from combative individuals. Last month, the agency won a nearly $17 million contract to purchase 6,000 pairs.

“Trump has put his political interests ahead of the health, safety and livelihoods of American families,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement after signing the law. “California is taking steps to strengthen transparency, accountability and oversight of immigration enforcement in our state. »

The law is the latest example of how Democratic-led states have opposed Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts since he took office last year. In California, lawmakers have passed at least two dozen bills this year aimed at, among other things, strengthening immigrants’ rights, restricting cooperation with federal immigration agents and strengthening regulations on immigrant detention centers.

Nationally, 17 states with Democratic-led legislatures have passed a total of more than 100 pro-immigrant bills this year, according to an Associated Press analysis using bill tracking software Plural. The most common goal is to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement agents.

California Democratic Assemblymember LaShae Sharp-Collins said she introduced the anti-shock glove legislation to “put a pause” on law enforcement’s use of the devices while the state examines their potential risks. The law requires the state Department of Justice to study their safety and report to lawmakers by 2029.

“There’s a lot of unrest and a lot of uncertainty,” she said in an interview. “A lot of people are scared.”

The law will once again test the state’s authority to restrict federal agents amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Earlier this year, a federal judge blocked the state’s first law banning federal officers from wearing face coverings, saying it was too selective because it applied to local and federal law enforcement but exempted state officers.

Lawmakers passed a new bill this year to make the ban apply to all officers. Newsom signed this legislation.

Kevin Johnson, professor emeritus at the University of California Davis School of Law, said courts will likely ultimately decide that the state cannot prohibit federal agents from wearing impact gloves or face coverings. The laws are well-intentioned, he said, but they likely conflict with the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which generally gives federal law supreme over conflicting state laws.

“The state has very limited, if any, power to dictate to the federal government how its agents are armed,” he said.

Sacramento Sheriff Jim Cooper, a Democrat and former state lawmaker, said banning impact gloves “really doesn’t make any sense” because they are among the non-lethal tools officers can use when needed.

“When the federal government does something, the state legislature wants to ban it,” he said at a news conference. “They make our job more difficult.”

Sharp-Collins said ICE’s plan to use impact gloves was the catalyst for the ban. But she cited their use by other officers, including a case in which a Kentucky family alleged a man died after being tased and shocked with gloves dozens of times while in law enforcement custody in 2024.

Scott Wiener, the state senator and Democrat from San Francisco who authored last year’s mask ban, also authored this year’s measure to extend it to state workers.

“California must use every tool available to defend our communities under attack from ICE’s secret police terrorist campaign,” he said in a statement after the Legislature passed the law.