# American Families United Act: Plain Language Summary

This bill gives immigration officials more flexibility to keep families together when someone faces deportation. Specifically, if you're married to a U.S. citizen, are a child of a U.S. citizen, or are a parent of a U.S. citizen, immigration authorities could now choose not to deport you or could allow you to reapply for entry into the country—even if you technically violated immigration rules. The key change is that officials can now consider the hardship that family separation would cause and use that as a reason to let you stay, rather than automatically following strict deportation rules.

The bill assumes that separating families causes hardship, so immigration officials don't have to spend time proving it—they can just accept that it's true. This applies on a case-by-case basis, meaning each situation gets individual consideration rather than applying one blanket policy to everyone. However, this flexibility doesn't apply to people convicted of serious crimes like violent felonies, terrorism-related offenses, drug trafficking, or human trafficking. Those individuals can still be deported regardless of their family ties.

The practical effect is that someone who might have been automatically deported under current law could potentially stay in the country if they have close family members who are U.S. citizens. For example, an undocumented immigrant married to a U.S. citizen might now have a chance to argue their case based on the hardship their spouse would face if they were removed. This gives immigration judges and officials discretion to make exceptions based on family relationships, though it doesn't guarantee anyone will be allowed to stay—it just creates the possibility for case-by-case consideration.

American Families United Act

Escobar, Veronica

American Families United Act This bill authorizes the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or the Department of Justice (DOJ) to exercise discretion in certain immigration cases. The bill also removes certain requirements related to birthright citizenship. Under this bill, DOJ or DHS may, on a case-by-case basis, exercise discretion by declining to remove an alien or bar an alien from entering the United States to prevent hardship for the alien's U.S. citizen spouse, parent, or child. However, DOJ or DHS may not exercise this discretion if the alien is removable or inadmissible due to certain grounds, including specified crime- and security-related grounds. The bill also removes certain requirements related to birthright citizenship for a child born outside of the United States to one U.S. citizen parent and one alien parent. Specifically, the bill removes a provision that requires the U.S. citizen parent to be physically present in the United States for at least five years before the child's birth in order for the child to acquire U.S. citizenship at birth.