Senator Susan Collins talks with the press during a campaign stop at the Kittery Trading Post Friday. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer)

KITTERY — Sen. Susan Collins on Friday criticized the Trump administration’s plans to use $20 million in federal funding to buy special gloves that would allow immigration agents to shock people they are trying to detain.

In April, Congress approved $70 billion in additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol. That included $20 million for body-worn cameras and $2 million for de-escalation training.

Collins, who supported the additional funding, told reporters during a campaign stop that the money was never meant for shock gloves, which are designed to elicit compliance from someone resisting arrest. The administration has described the gloves as a de-escalation device.

Instead, Collins said the funding was intended to ensure that agents are properly trained before taking to the streets.

“The money that we put in for de-escalation training was intended to help agents deal more effectively when there’s a large crowd that appears to be getting out of control, and it was teaching them techniques on how to deal with that,” Collins said.

Collins’ staff said the administration is bound to use the money as appropriated, otherwise it would be breaking the law. Her staff did not respond to a question about what Collins, who leads the Senate Appropriations Committee, would do if the administration moved forward.

News of the shock gloves has alarmed Democrats and civil liberty advocates, who want more oversight of ICE.

Collins’ opponent, Troy Jackson, a former state Senate president, also held a campaign event on Friday, in Westbrook. He went further than Collins in his criticism of ICE, saying the agency should be abolished.

“There’s so much controversy around them now (that) I don’t think even with a housecleaning that it could ever be an organization that works well,” Jackson said.

Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, called on Congress to step up oversight of the agency.

“Rather than have an open, good-faith conversation over methods and tactics, ICE is now investing millions (through what is reportedly a no-bid contract) in shock gloves that can do serious harm with little or no transparency or accountability,” King said in a written statement Thursday.

“I urge every single one of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stand up, assert our constitutional authority, and demand immediate answers from ICE on their hiring practices, training and tactics.”

Collins’ comments came two days after a Fox News poll showed that a majority of Maine voters, including the moderates and independents who have been an important part of her coalition, believe the five-term incumbent sides with Trump’s agenda too often.

Collins dismissed concerns that her voting record — an analysis by CQ Roll Call found she voted with Trump 95% of the time in 2025 — is eroding her popularity. She said she has worked with both Republican and Democratic presidents when she thinks they’re right, and opposed them when she thinks they’re wrong.

“That’s always been my approach. It hasn’t changed over the years,” she said. “Time after time, I am ranked as the most bipartisan member of the Senate. I work with members on both sides of the aisle, and that’s the way that you get things done in Washington.”

Collins was in Kittery on Friday kicking off a statewide bus tour that will be a big part of her reelection campaign against Jackson.

Maine is an important race for both parties this cycle. Democrats need to flip four seats to regain control of the Senate. And Collins is the only Republican senator running in a state won by Democrats in the 2024 presidential election.

Collins rolled into the Kittery Trading Post shortly before 9:30 a.m. in a coach bus with her name emblazoned on the side. As she stepped off the bus, supporters and staff wearing bright red T-shirts and holding campaign signs greeted her enthusiastically.

Among them was Mike Haran, a 58-year-old immigrant from Ireland who was carrying an American flag and wearing a Trump hat. The building contractor, who now lives in Kittery, said he came to the U.S. legally in the 1980s and supports Collins because she opposes open borders.

“It’s not an easy task, getting here, so I know the struggle,” Haran said. “America is the greatest country in the world, regardless of which party is in power. But it’s also a country of laws and barriers, and we have to have laws and barriers.”

Democrats have been hammering Collins over her support for additional ICE funding since agents killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford on July 13. The native of Colombia was shot while agents were trying to execute an arrest warrant for someone else.

Collins and other members of the state’s congressional delegation have called for an impartial, thorough and transparent investigation into the shooting.

She also called for body-worn cameras to be fast-tracked to immigration agents in Maine. She announced on Thursday that those cameras had arrived.

Collins also noted on Friday that the additional ICE funding included a 17% increase for the Office of Inspector General, which investigates agent-related shootings.

Staff Writer Billy Kobin contributed to this story.