US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers may soon be equipped with gloves that can deliver electric shocks as they carry out their law enforcement duties.

ICE plans to spend up to $20m (£14.8m) to buy the Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter (GLOVE), according to a note published on Monday by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The gloves can deliver up to 380 volts of electricity, roughly three times the charge of a standard US power outlet.

Civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), have expressed alarm over its use. ICE is under scrutiny for its tactics during enforcement activity, which have resulted in several fatal shootings by officers.

The DHS said in a statement to the BBC: “ICE is constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country.”

Compliant Technologies LLC, which makes the gloves, told the BBC it was unable to comment on the sale. A no-bid purchase contract could be published as early as Friday, DHS said.

The GLOVE devices are activated by pushing a button to deliver shocks and can deliver up to 30 pulses per second. They also feature built-in microprocessors that keep a record of activation. Compliant Technologies states on its website that they do not cause injury and are used by many agencies.

A user manual on the company’s website recommends avoiding use on the elderly, small children, pregnant women and the “severely handicapped”, as well as that an additional officer be present to restrain the subject while the gloves are being used.

Unlike a taser, which uses sharp barbs in the skin to deliver a shock of up to 50,000 volts, the gloves do not complete an electrical circuit inside the body.

The gloves instead deliver a sharp shock to convince a subject to comply using “pain deterrence”, says Lt Butch Gallion, an administrator at Hawkins County jail in Tennessee.

“We may or may not deploy them. It just depends on how they act. When you push the button to turn them on there’s a light that displays. The inmates understand that light, and often just seeing the light brings compliance,” he says.

The shocks can only be delivered when they contact skin, allowing an officer to touch a subject’s clothing, and then move to the skin – typically the wrist or elbow – if they begin to fight.

If they become combative, he continues, “then you can apply the gloves to an area that the skin is exposed. And it’s an instant complier for me”.

According to the DHS note, GLOVE would be used by officers and agents in Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which targets transnational criminal organisations, and Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO), which is responsible for arresting, detaining and deporting people who violate immigration laws in the US.

Some law enforcement agencies are already using the gloves but it’s believed that the planned ICE purchase would be the largest from Compliant Technologies to date.

Civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), have expressed alarm about law enforcement using them.

“ICE spent the last year showing this country that they are willing to disregard the law and are too quick to use force, with devastating and at times fatal consequences for citizens and noncitizens alike,” said Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy director on policing at the ACLU.

Federal immigration agents have been criticised in the wake of fatalities that have occurred during enforcement operations.

Recent incidents include the fatal shooting of Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas, while Colombian national Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was killed during an immigration enforcement operation in Maine.

ICE has also been under pressure to deliver President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda, which includes meeting a daily target of arrests.

“Now they [ICE] might be equipped with a device that allows them to deliver an electric shock with their hands by pushing a small button, in a move that might be imperceptible to those watching,” Borchetta said.

“Giving immigration agents a concealed means of delivering terrible pain is a recipe for more harm to the public and less accountability.”

With reporting by Max Matza