Hasta La Gadget!

A 44-year-old Salvadoran national died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody on Saturday, the 10th detainee to die in ICE custody since this fiscal year began Oct. 1. That’s the same number who died in the entire 2016 fiscal year, and the most since 2011.

Carlos Mejía Bonilla, 44, was admitted to Jersey City Medical Center’s Intensive Care Unit with gastrointestinal bleeding on June 8. He died two days later, according to a statement ICE released on Tuesday.

Mejía Bonilla first crossed into the United States in 1993. He was arrested by Border Patrol agents, but freed on an order of recognizance, according to ICE. He had been living in the New York area in recent years, where ICE detained him on April 1. He had two convictions on his record for driving while intoxicated ― in 2009 and in 2014.

The number of deaths in ICE custody varies from year to year, influenced somewhat by the total number of people detained. Some deaths are the result of medical conditions that happened prior to detention.

“ICE takes the health and well-being of the individuals in our custody extremely seriously and we provide extensive medical, dental and mental health care to ensure their health and safety to the best of our ability,” ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said in a statement.

Human rights groups, however, have criticized both the medical treatment and mental health services available to immigrant detainees. Two of the 10 deaths this fiscal year were suicides. A third immigrant detainee attempted suicide at at family detention center in Texas last month in an attempt to free her two children. They were later granted asylum.  

Deaths in custody are increasingly a concern as President Donald Trump seeks to significantly expand immigrant detention, including for families, and to potentially roll back Obama-era standards meant to keep detainees safer while in custody.

Grace Meng, an immigration researcher with Human Rights Watch, called the rising number of deaths “frankly terrifying,” and said ICE should publicly release the results of its investigations into detainee deaths.

“It’s really upsetting to see ICE send out these releases where there’s so little information about the person,” Meng told HuffPost. “At a bare minimum, we should know how and why these people died. Sometimes people die in custody for reasons that are not preventable ― that’s just something that happens. But if ICE thinks they received good care, then they should release these publicly so we can see what kind of care they received.”

Congress requires ICE to maintain the capacity to lock up roughly 34,000 immigrants facing deportation on a daily basis. But the agency had already begun to exceed that figure in the final months of the Obama administration, when the number of detained immigrants swelled to more than 40,000. The average daily detained population for this fiscal year, which includes more than five months of Trump’s presidency, stands at more than 39,000.

The Trump administration plans to keep boosting that figure. ICE’s 2018 budget request includes $4.9 billion to expand its immigrant detention capacity to a total of 51,379 beds, including 2,500 reserved for mothers locked up with their children.

Carl Takei, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, said three factors make him concerned: “The increasing flow of people into ICE custody, the forthcoming changes to detention standards, and, related to that, a clear message sent from headquarters that going forward the conditions in detention are not a priority.

“That message is a deadly message,” Takei said.

Deaths in ICE custody haven’t always correlated with the number of people detained, according to government figures. In 2004, 28 people died in detention, while the average daily population of detainees was about 22,000. The lowest number of deaths in a fiscal year was in 2014, when there were about 33,000 people detained per day and six deaths.

ICE implemented detention reforms in the 2009 fiscal year, when there were 14 deaths. The number has not exceeded 10 since that period.

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For many viewers, the recently released box-office hit “Wonder Woman” could have ― and should have ― been set entirely on the women-only Amazon warrior paradise of Themyscira.

In fact, I would have contentedly traded Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor for more time with Artemis, Antiope or Hippolyta at any given point in the film’s 141 minutes. It felt profoundly satisfying to watch women of all colors, sizes, shapes and ages wield so much physical power on a humongous screen, and as the story went from Themyscira to World War I-era Western Europe, I found myself missing the women warriors and wanting to know more about them. 

Turns out, the real women beneath the armor are just as fierce as their characters. 

*** 

Ann Wolfe, Artemis

Ann Wolfe is considered by many to be the best female boxer in history, known in particular for her strong and unforgiving punches ― in fact, her 2007 knockout of Vonda Ward has more than a million views on YouTube.

Wolfe told HuffPost a bit about how, after her storied boxing career, she came to be in the blockbuster hit.

“Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins had approached her for the role because of her knowledge of Wolfe’s background in boxing. Jenkins’ husband, Sam Sheridan, a former professional fighter himself, had long been following her career. As other women were auditioning for the role of Artemis, Jenkins kept going back to Wolfe. She eventually got the part, and was flown out to London to meet everyone before starting filming in Italy. 

“I had never been on a set,” she told HuffPost. “Patty got out of the director’s chat and said, ‘Sit down!’ And then Gal [Gadot] came over and looked at me and said, ‘Yep, that’s Artemis.’”

The rest, according to Wolfe, was magic. She told HuffPost that working with so many other athletic women was a gift, especially after spending so much of her boxing career being trained by and working with men.  

“It felt like we were truly Amazons,” she said. “I have never been around that many strong women at one time. It was like a puzzle, and we all fit in it together. It felt like we were real, true Amazons.” 

Madeleine Vall Beijner, Egeria 

Like Wolfe, Madeleine Vall Beijner came to “Wonder Woman” from the world of professional fighting. For over 10 years, she was a world-ranked Thai boxer. After an injury took her away from her plans to transfer into MMA, she instead took her skills to stunt roles and film. The intense physical demands that she and the other Amazons went through on set were pretty standard for her skill level. 

“I’m used to training two to three times a day,” Beijner told HuffPost. “The difference was in the techniques and choreography, but since I’m used to constantly learning new moves, pro-fighting translated itself pretty easily into stunt acting. I feel like I have a great base to build on from all my years taking punches and knocking people out.”

What was new for the Swedish fighter, though, was getting to do so much heavy lifting with other women. 

“It wasn’t actually until ‘Wonder Woman’ I got to be in a girl-power world. Being a female Thai and kickboxer, I’ve been in a man’s world for the last decade, so being around this many women was completely new to me,” she said.  

“I was a little nervous at first,” she added, “but as soon as I arrived I just felt this … surge of power and unity.”

Both Beijner and Wolfe talked about that bond on set, and the environment that Jenkins created to nurture it.  

“I give a lot of credit to Patty Jenkins for creating this vibe, it truly went top-down,” Beijner said. “This movie is about a lot of things, but female power, wisdom and badassery is what’s at the core. And Patty managed to get that out of each and every one of us, as well as a team, or troops. Us Amazons challenged each other while training, only to push each other further and to become stronger. Beyond that, we used our fighting spirit to support each other. There were days we were so tired we could sleep standing up, but we went at it, again and again and again.”

Doutzen Kroes, Venelia 

Doutzen Kroes may best be known as a Victoria’s Secret Angel and supermodel, but she’s also trained in horseback riding ― and showed off these skills in her role as Amazon warrior Venelia. 

Kroes told HuffPost that having an equestrian background made the training a bit more natural, but it was still outrageously intense.

“I’ve loved riding horses my entire life,” she said. “But riding at full gallop with a weapon was challenging, but empowering and so much fun.” 

She too was quick to credit Jenkins for steering the ship and allowing women to be their baddest warrior selves.

“She is like a real-life Queen Hippolyta ― Patty set a mood that was welcoming, warm and supportive,” Kroes said.

She was also grateful for that tough-yet-maternal culture among the other Amazons. “Many of the other Amazons are also mothers, so we were all able to have our families with us during filming,” she said. “It was just a very special moment — to be in this gorgeous Italian paradise, shooting this historic film and iconic story and then having the opportunity to share it with so many cool women and their children … The experience of working on Wonder Woman was something I’ve never had before.” 

Brooke Ence, Penthesilea

Like some of the other Amazons, Brooke Ence caught the attention of the director as a professional athlete ― she’s a competitive CrossFit athlete, and was scouted by film producers just before the 2015 games. 

“I got a call from Warner Bros. asking me if I would come in and read,” she told HuffPost. “I had no idea what it was for.”

Ence told HuffPost that she initially felt conflicted about accepting the role because the filming would clash with her training schedule for the 2016 CrossFit Games. 

“I was really hesitant to [accept the role] … But it just seemed like a really great opportunity that people audition for all the time and never get,” she said. “And it literally just fell in my lap. I just couldn’t say no.”

Because Ence was training for the CrossFit Games during filming, she felt right at home among the other athletes. In fact, she was the last Amazon that they flew out to train ― most of her training was pretty much already done, and she was already in Amazon shape. But that didn’t mean she didn’t have more to learn. 

“Everyone that was an Amazon [had] so much mental strength,” she said. “Everyone just walked with more power. They walked with this Amazonian vibe.”

“It was a great realization of all the different types of strength. Strength for me is physical and super, super mental,” she continued. “And there, not only did I get to see and feel strength in a physical sense, but a lot of it was in attitude, and determination … It was very empowering to be around so many different types of women with the common goal. Everyone came together as this army.”

Samantha Jo, Euboea

Many have already seen Samantha Jo on film before without even knowing it. She’s worked as a body double for major Hollywood blockbusters like “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ― Part 2,” and “300: Rise of an Empire.”

Jo also told HuffPost how much she loved being on set with so many ripped women who were there to play the role of warriors, especially in contrast to her experience in “300,” when she was the only woman on set with dozens of men.

“It was really interesting to contrast the experience of working with 40 men, where I was the only woman,” she said. 

“Females just have a different kind of energy. There was this bonding that happened. I think it was probably through the suffering [from training],” she added.

She told HuffPost how, on the first week of shooting, part of the training for the women playing Amazons was to stack weights on top of a sled and push it back and forth.

“It was my first week, and my muscles weren’t quite developed, and I wasn’t as strong as everyone else yet,” she said.  

At one point, after about 20 seconds, she began to feel dizzy and felt herself fading. 

“All of the women in the gym ran up behind me and started yelling and cheering for me. I don’t think I would have made it had they not given me that extra push. I almost started crying [at] the love that I felt,” she said. “And that was only day three.”

What’s abundantly clear, from Jo and the rest of the Amazons, is that “Wonder Woman” being led by Jenkins was what made the experience ― and the film itself ― so damn special. 

“The whole vibe of the set really starts from the top down,” she said. “It was interesting to get a female perspective.” Jo said that the story itself was that much better because it was told and directed by a woman.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of action and cool moments. But at the heart of it, it’s about love and compassion and unity,” she said. “It translated so well coming from a woman’s voice. We all knew that we were going to be a part of something really special.”

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Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) was cut off by two of her male colleagues while questioning Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday, just one week after they interrupted her during a different hearing. 

During Sessions’ testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Harris asked him to explain what Justice Department policy prevented him from answering some questions from the committee’s members, and whether he had discussed that policy with his staff prior to the hearing. 

But as Harris, a former prosecutor, pressed the attorney general to answer her questions, she was interrupted by the committee’s chairman, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).  

“Sir, I’m not asking you about the principle. I’m asking when you knew you would be asked these questions and you would rely on that policy, did you not ask your staff to show you policy that would be the basis for your refusing to answer the majority of questions that have been asked of you?” Harris, who is one of three women on the Senate committee, asked Sessions after he avoided directly answering her line of questioning. 

“Chairman, the witness should be allowed to answer the question,” McCain said.  

“Senators will allow the chairs to control the hearing,” Burr said to McCain. “Senator Harris, let him answer.” 

Harris later tweeted about the exchange:

Neither Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) nor Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who were fairly aggressive in their questioning, was cut off by their colleagues. 

Burr and McCain also cut off Harris while she questioned Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last week. 

“As a career prosecutor and former attorney general, Senator Harris has run countless investigations, and will follow the facts wherever they may lead to get the truth for the American people,” Harris spokesman Tyrone Gayle said last week. “That can only happen when witnesses answer questions.”

Read more on Sessions’ testimony here.

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