The American Families United Act is a bipartisan bill in Congress, H.R. 2366, that would give immigration judges and federal officials the discretion to keep families together by waiving certain deportation and inadmissibility bars when removing a non-citizen would cause hardship to their U.S. citizen spouse, parent, or child.1Congress.gov. H.R. 2366 – 119th Congress (2025-2026) American Families United Act Roughly 1.2 million undocumented people in the United States have a U.S. citizen spouse, and about 4.2 million people live in mixed-status households built around those marriages. The bill has not been enacted, so nothing in it is in effect today.
The Problem the Bill Targets
Under current law, a non-citizen who has been unlawfully present in the United States for more than 180 days but less than a year and then leaves becomes inadmissible for three years. Someone unlawfully present for a year or more who departs faces a ten-year bar on returning.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 Inadmissible Aliens
This creates a trap for mixed-status families. Most undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens must leave the country to process a green card at a consulate abroad, but the moment they depart, the three- or ten-year bar triggers. A waiver exists, but it requires proving that denying admission would cause “extreme hardship” to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse or parent. Courts have read that standard to mean hardship well beyond what a family would normally feel from separation, and routine financial strain, emotional distress, and disruption to children’s lives often fail to clear the bar.3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 9 Part B Chapter 1 – Purpose and Background
A harsher rule, the permanent bar, applies to someone who accumulated more than a year of unlawful presence (or was previously ordered removed) and then reentered without authorization. That person faces a lifetime inadmissibility with almost no waiver available under current law.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 Inadmissible Aliens The only existing exception is for survivors of domestic violence who can tie the abuse to their departure and reentry.
What the Bill Would Change
The core change is small in text and large in effect. The bill replaces the “extreme hardship” requirement with a simple “hardship” standard and creates a presumption that separating a family qualifies as hardship on its own.1Congress.gov. H.R. 2366 – 119th Congress (2025-2026) American Families United Act
The Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security would gain case-by-case discretion to decline to remove a non-citizen or to waive an inadmissibility bar when doing so prevents hardship to the person’s U.S. citizen spouse, parent, or child. The same authority extends to the spouse or child of a deceased U.S. citizen, closing a gap where a citizen’s death currently ends any basis for their family member’s relief.1Congress.gov. H.R. 2366 – 119th Congress (2025-2026) American Families United Act
The discretion reaches beyond the unlawful presence bars. It would also apply to inadmissibility grounds based on misrepresentation or false claims to citizenship, and to certain other technical violations that currently trigger mandatory bars with no room to weigh family impact. Immigration judges in removal proceedings could terminate those proceedings or grant permission to reapply for relief when deportation would cause hardship to citizen family members or run against the public interest. The bill would also extend waiver authority to people currently caught by the permanent bar, provided they meet the other eligibility rules.
Who Would Qualify
Relief centers on the family relationship. The non-citizen seeking a waiver must be the spouse, parent, or child of a U.S. citizen. Children under immigration law are generally unmarried individuals under twenty-one.4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) Stepchildren qualify if the marriage between the U.S. citizen stepparent and the child’s birth parent took place before the child turned eighteen.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Immigration, Adoption, and Citizenship for Stepchildren of U.S. Citizens and LPRs
The U.S. citizen relative is the person whose potential hardship justifies the waiver. Applicants must document the relationship with records like marriage certificates, birth records, or adoption decrees, and USCIS already scrutinizes these relationships for fraud.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 4 Part C Chapter 4 – Documentation and Evidence A marriage or parental bond found to be fraudulent disqualifies the applicant entirely.
Who Would Be Excluded
The bill draws hard lines around serious criminal and security conduct. Officials cannot use the new discretion for someone who is removable or inadmissible on certain crime- or national security-related grounds.1Congress.gov. H.R. 2366 – 119th Congress (2025-2026) American Families United Act
The broadest exclusion covers aggravated felonies as defined in federal immigration law, a category that includes crimes of violence carrying a prison sentence of at least one year, money laundering involving more than $10,000, drug trafficking, firearms offenses, and many others.7Legal Information Institute. 8 USC 1101 – Definitions Anyone with an aggravated felony conviction is categorically barred.
Terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds also block relief. Under current law, anyone who has engaged in terrorist activity, is a member of a designated terrorist organization, or has received military-type training from such an organization is inadmissible, and the bill does not override those bars.8U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Terrorism-Related Inadmissibility Grounds (TRIG) Convictions for human trafficking and for drug distribution beyond simple possession are also non-waivable. All applicants would go through FBI background and interagency security checks, and a disqualifying record surfaced during that process results in denial and can trigger expedited removal.9U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12 Part B Chapter 2 – Background and Security Checks
Retroactive Relief for Already-Separated Families
The bill would reach backward. A person already ordered removed or denied entry before enactment could file a motion to reopen or reconsider within two years of the law taking effect.1Congress.gov. H.R. 2366 – 119th Congress (2025-2026) American Families United Act Families already living apart because of an old removal order, or where a spouse is abroad under a ten-year bar, could ask to have their cases reconsidered under the new hardship standard.
The two-year window is a hard deadline, not a rolling one. A family that misses it loses the retroactive route. For anyone in this position, tracking the bill’s progress and acting quickly if it passes would matter.
Filing Fees and Process
If the bill becomes law, most applicants would seek a waiver by filing Form I-601 with USCIS. The current filing fee is $1,050, and fee waivers are available for certain categories, including victims of trafficking and domestic violence.10U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form G-1055 – Fee Schedule Fees adjust periodically, so check the current schedule before filing.
The process involves submitting the waiver application with proof of the qualifying family relationship and evidence that denial would cause hardship to the U.S. citizen relative. Under the lowered standard, the presumption that separation itself is hardship shifts some of the evidentiary burden, but the relationship still has to be documented and the circumstances still have to be laid out clearly.
Current Status
H.R. 2366 was introduced in the House on March 26, 2025, by Representatives Veronica Escobar and María Elvira Salazar, and was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.11Congress.gov. H.R. 2366 – 119th Congress (2025-2026) American Families United Act – All Info A Senate companion, S. 3592, has also been introduced. As of early 2026, neither bill has advanced beyond committee referral. Previous versions were introduced in earlier congressional sessions without reaching a floor vote.12Congresswoman Veronica Escobar. Congresswoman Escobar, Salazar Reintroduce the American Families United Act
Because the bill has not been enacted, families in the immigration system today remain subject to the extreme hardship standard and to the full three-year, ten-year, and permanent unlawful presence bars.