If you look at the actual legislation for Pell Grants and student loans, it allows for executive discretion to forgive loans. The intent was extreme hardship cases. But technically Biden's student loan forgiveness was not illegal. And in fact it was likely a good idea since it stimulated both education and the economy at the same time.
And I agree it was illegal to intern the Japanese.
But we did apologize and pay some compensation.
{...
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 and to "discourage the occurrence of similar injustices and violations of civil liberties in the future". The act was sponsored by
California Democratic congressman and former internee
Norman Mineta in the House and Hawaii Democratic Senator
Spark Matsunaga in the Senate.
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 $44,000 in 2023, 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.
...}
Civil Liberties Act of 1988 - Wikipedia