Executive Order 9066 authorized Japanese detention during World War II, not gift cards for recent migrants
FILE - Relocated Japanese Americans sit on small front porches at barracks at Rohwer Relocation Center near Rohwer, Ark., on Sept. 21, 1942. Social media users are falsely claiming that the executive order authorizing Japanese incarceration during World War II provides recent migrants to the U.S. with gift cards. (AP Photo/Horace Cort, File)
CLAIM: President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 9066, which provides people who enter the U.S. illegally with a $5,000 Visa gift card.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Executive Order 9066 was issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942, authorizing the forced removal from the West Coast of anyone deemed a threat to national security. It paved the way for the relocation and incarceration of approximately 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including U.S.-born citizens, during World War II. The order was formally terminated in 1976 by President Gerald Ford. Immigration experts previously told The Associated Press that people who enter the U.S. illegally are not eligible for federal cash assistance, with exceptions for certain Cubans and Haitians. None of these benefits include a one-time payment of $5,000.
THE FACTS: On the 82nd anniversary of the order on Monday, social media users erroneously claimed that it is a recent directive meant to aid those who cross the U.S. border illegally.
“Biden’s Executive Order 9066 gives illegals a $5,000 VISA card to use as they wish,” reads one post on X. “Is Biden buying votes?” It had received approximately 12,300 likes and shares as of Tuesday.
Another X post with more than 11,700 likes and shares falsely states: “Executive order 9066 is rewarding these illegals with $5,000 gift cards. I’m busting my ass just to get more in debt every month because of Bidenomics. The Democrats have let me know I am DEAD LAST as an American. I will never support a Democrat or liberal after seeing what destruction they have caused in the last 3 years. What about you?”
Some posts making these allegations included a video posted to X in December by Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Arizona. In the video, Lamb falsely claims that in addition to $5,000 Visa gift cards, the government also gives people who enter the U.S. illegally a cell phone and a domestic plane ticket to a location of their choosing. The government does not provide such assistance.
But Executive Order 9066 is entirely unrelated to modern-day immigration.
Roosevelt signed the order on Feb. 19, 1942, shortly after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor that led the U.S. to formally enter World War II. It allowed anyone deemed a national security threat to be forcibly removed from the country’s West Coast, resulting in the relocation and incarceration of roughly 120,000 Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans in desolate camps. The government claimed those held might plot against the U.S. during the war even though thousands of them were elderly, disabled, children or infants. Two-thirds were citizens.
These incarcerations ended following the conclusion of World War II in 1945. President Gerald Ford formally terminated Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1976, its 34th anniversary. A 1988 law provided remaining survivors of the camps with $20,000 each in restitution, as well as a formal apology.
People who enter the U.S. illegally do not receive $5,000 gift cards from the federal government and are not eligible for any federal cash assistance, with exceptions for certain Cubans and Haitians, immigration experts previously told the AP. None of these benefits include a one-time payment of $5,000.
The AP has also previously reported, contrary to Lamb’s claims, that some people who come to the U.S. illegally may receive phones, but they can only access a monitoring service as part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Alternatives to Detention program. And although limited federal aid can help get migrants where they intend to go, they typically must choose from a set list of destinations and are usually transported by bus, not planes. Lamb has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
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This is part of the AP’s effort to address widely shared false and misleading information that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.