Civil Liberties Act of 1988

rdf:langString Civil Liberties Act of 1988

rdf:langString Civil Liberties Act of 1988

rdf:langString Tom Foley

rdf:langString House

rdf:langString House

rdf:langString Senate

rdf:langString voice vote

rdf:langString The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (Pub.L. 100–383, title I, August 10, 1988, 102 Stat. 904, 50a U.S.C. § 1989b et seq.) is a United States federal law that granted reparations to Japanese Americans who had been wrongly interned by the United States government during World War II. The act was sponsored by California Democratic congressman and former internee Norman Mineta, Wyoming Republican senator Alan K. Simpson (who had met Mineta while visiting an internment camp) and California senator Pete Wilson. The bill was supported by the majority of Democrats in Congress, while the majority of Republicans voted against it. The act was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. The act granted each surviving internee $20,000 in compensation, equivalent to $39,000 in 2020, with payments beginning in 1990. The legislation stated that government actions had been based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership" as opposed to legitimate security reasons. A total of 82,219 received redress checks. Because the law was restricted to American citizens and legal permanent residents, ethnic Japanese who had been taken from their homes in Latin America (mostly from Peru) were not granted reparations, regardless of whether they had remained in the United States, had returned to Latin America or had been deported to Japan after the war. In 1996, Carmen Mochizuki filed a class-action lawsuit and won a settlement of approximately $5,000 per eligible person. Of those affected, 145 received their settlement before funds were exhausted. In 1999, funds were approved for the Attorney General to pay compensation to the remaining claimants.