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Detainees stand behind a fence at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility, where Venezuelans at the center of a Supreme Court ruling on deportation are held, in Anson, Texas, U.S. April 22, 2025.
Hard Numbers: SCOTUS removes protections for Venezuelans, France to build overseas prison, Rice prices soak Japan’s PM, US borrowing costs rise
350,000: The US Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the Trump administration can end temporary deportation protections for nearly 350,000 Venezuelans, making them vulnerable to mass deportation.
45 million: After a series of attacks on prison workers, France plans to build a new high-security prison in French Guiana, an overseas department of France which borders Brazil. The $45 million facility, meant to hold drug traffickers and radical Islamists, could open as soon as 2028, and will be located deep in the Amazon jungle.
27.4: With upper house elections approaching, Japan’s current government is facing its lowest approval ratings yet, as support for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s cabinet has fallen to 27.4%. Shigeru is blamed in part for soaring rice prices, which have doubled over the last year.
5.03: On Monday, US long-term borrowing costs edged up to 5.03%, the highest level since late 2023. The increase reflects the loss of the country’s triple-A credit rating, and concerns that Donald Trump’s major tax and budget bill will plunge the US government into even further debt.
US Supreme Court
US Supreme Court stays deportation of Venezuelan migrants – for now
The US Supreme Court issued a decision early Saturday temporarily halting the Trump administration’s imminent deportation of Venezuelan migrants. The men, accused of belonging to criminal gangs, were to be removed under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law usually used in wartime.
Instead, the justices instructed the government “not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court.” Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
What was the basis for the decision? Time. While the Supreme Court had upheld the use of the statute in other cases, it required that deportees have adequate time to contest their removal. The American Civil Liberties Union claimed that in this case the men had not had adequate time to do so: Detainees were told they would be removed that evening or the next day, and some had reportedly already been loaded onto buses.
What’s next? In response, on Saturday afternoon the Trump administration asked the justices to reject the migrants’ stay after its additional review. There was no indication that the administration would defy the Supreme Court in the meantime – a move that would have sparked a constitutional crisis.