I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2366
To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to promote family unity,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH26, 2025
Ms. E
SCOBAR(for herself, Ms. SALAZAR, Mr. TONKO, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr.
C
ARBAJAL, Mr. CASAR, Mr. CORREA, Ms. DEANof Pennsylvania, Ms.
D
ELBENE, Mr. GARCI´Aof Illinois, Mr. MENENDEZ, Ms. ROSS, Ms. SALI-
NAS, Ms. SA´NCHEZ, Ms. SCANLON, Mr. SOTO, Mr. SUOZZI, Ms. MCCOL-
LUM, Mr. LEVIN, and Mr. GOLDMANof New York) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to promote
family unity, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘American Families 4
United Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 6
Nothing in this Act shall be construed— 7
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(1) to provide the Secretary of Homeland Secu-1
rity or the Attorney General with the ability to exer-2
cise the discretionary authority provided in this Act, 3
or by an amendment made by this Act, except on a 4
case-by-case basis; or 5
(2) to otherwise modify or limit the discre-6
tionary authority of the Secretary of Homeland Se-7
curity or the Attorney General under the immigra-8
tion laws (as defined in section 101(a)(17) of the 9
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 10
1101(a)(17))). 11
SEC. 3. DISCRETIONARY AUTHORITY WITH RESPECT TO 12
FAMILY MEMBERS OF UNITED STATES CITI-13
ZENS. 14
(a) A
PPLICATIONS FORRELIEFFROMREMOVAL.— 15
Section 240(c)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act 16
(8 U.S.C. 1229a(c)(4)) is amended by adding at the end 17
the following: 18
‘‘(D) J
UDICIAL DISCRETION.— 19
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—In the case of an 20
alien who is the spouse or child of a citizen 21
of the United States, the Attorney General 22
may subject to clause (ii)— 23
‘‘(I) terminate any removal pro-24
ceedings against the alien; 25
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‘‘(II) decline to order the alien 1
removed from the United States; 2
‘‘(III) grant the alien permission 3
to reapply for admission to the United 4
States; or 5
‘‘(IV) subject to clause (iii), 6
waive the application of one or more 7
grounds of inadmissibility or deport-8
ability in connection with any request 9
for relief from removal. 10
‘‘(ii) L
IMITATION ON DISCRETION.— 11
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—The Attorney 12
General may exercise the discretion 13
described in clause (i) if the Attorney 14
General determines that removal of 15
the alien or the denial of a request for 16
relief from removal would result in 17
hardship to the alien’s United States 18
citizen spouse, parent, or child. There 19
shall be a presumption that family 20
separation constitutes hardship. 21
‘‘(II) W
IDOW AND SURVIVING 22
CHILD OF DECEASED UNITED STATES 23
CITIZEN.—In the case of the death of 24
a citizen of the United States, the At-25
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torney General may exercise discretion 1
described in clause (i) with respect to 2
an alien who was a child of such cit-3
izen, or was the spouse of such citizen 4
and was not legally separated from 5
such citizen on the date of the citi-6
zen’s death, if— 7
‘‘(aa) the Attorney General 8
determines that removal of the 9
child or spouse or the denial of a 10
requested benefit would result in 11
hardship to the child or spouse; 12
and 13
‘‘(bb) the child or spouse 14
seeks relief requiring such discre-15
tion not later than two years 16
after the date of the citizen’s 17
death or demonstrates to the sat-18
isfaction of the Attorney General 19
the existence of extraordinary cir-20
cumstances that prevented the 21
spouse or child from seeking re-22
lief within such period. 23
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‘‘(iii) EXCLUSIONS.—This subpara-1
graph shall not apply to an alien whom the 2
Attorney General determines— 3
‘‘(I) is inadmissible under— 4
‘‘(aa) paragraph (2) or (3) 5
of section 212(a); or 6
‘‘(bb) subparagraph (A), 7
(C), or (D) of section 212(a)(10); 8
or 9
‘‘(II) is deportable under para-10
graph (2), (4), or (6) of section 11
237(a).’’. 12
(b) S
ECRETARY’SDISCRETION.—Section 212 of the 13
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182) is 14
amended— 15
(1) by redesignating the second subsection (t) 16
as subsection (u); and 17
(2) by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(v) S
ECRETARY’SDISCRETION.— 19
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—In the case of an alien who 20
is the spouse or child of a citizen of the United 21
States, the Secretary of Homeland Security may, 22
subject to paragraph (2)— 23
‘‘(A) waive the application of one or more 24
grounds of inadmissibility or deportability in 25
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connection with an application for an immigra-1
tion benefit or request for relief from removal; 2
‘‘(B) decline to issue a notice to appear or 3
other charging document requiring such an 4
alien to appear for removal proceedings; 5
‘‘(C) decline to reinstate an order of re-6
moval under section 241(a)(5); or 7
‘‘(D) grant such alien permission to re-8
apply for admission to the United States or any 9
other application for an immigration benefit. 10
‘‘(2) L
IMITATION ON DISCRETION.— 11
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of 12
Homeland Security may exercise discretion de-13
scribed in paragraph (1) if the Secretary deter-14
mines that removal of the alien or the denial of 15
a requested benefit would result in hardship to 16
the alien’s United States citizen spouse, parent, 17
or child. There shall be a presumption that 18
family separation constitutes hardship. 19
‘‘(B) W
IDOW AND ORPHAN OF DECEASED 20
UNITED STATES CITIZEN .—In the case of the 21
death of a citizen of the United States, the Sec-22
retary of Homeland Security may exercise dis-23
cretion described in paragraph (1) with respect 24
to an alien who was a child of such citizen, or 25
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was the spouse of such citizen and was not le-1
gally separated from such citizen on the date of 2
the citizen’s death, if— 3
‘‘(i) the Secretary determines that the 4
denial of a requested benefit would result 5
in hardship to the child or spouse; and 6
‘‘(ii) the child or spouse seeks relief 7
requiring such discretion not later than 8
two years after the date of the citizen’s 9
death or demonstrates to the satisfaction 10
of the Secretary the existence of extraor-11
dinary circumstances that prevented the 12
spouse or child from seeking relief within 13
such period. 14
‘‘(3) E
XCLUSIONS.—This subsection shall not 15
apply to an alien whom the Secretary determines— 16
‘‘(A) is inadmissible under— 17
‘‘(i) paragraph (2) or (3) of sub-18
sections (a); or 19
‘‘(ii) subparagraphs (A), (C), or (D) 20
of subsection (a)(10); or 21
‘‘(B) is deportable under paragraphs (2), 22
(4), or (6) of section 237(a).’’. 23
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SEC. 4. MOTIONS TO REOPEN OR RECONSIDER. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—A motion to reopen or reconsider 2
the denial of a petition or application or an order of re-3
moval for an alien may be granted if such petition, appli-4
cation, or order would have been adjudicated in favor of 5
the alien had this Act, or an amendment made by this 6
Act, been in effect at the time of such denial or order. 7
(b) F
ILINGREQUIREMENT.—A motion under sub-8
section (a) shall be filed no later than the date that is 9
2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, unless 10
the alien demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Secretary 11
of Homeland Security or Attorney General, as appro-12
priate, the existence of extraordinary circumstances that 13
prevented the alien from filing within such period. 14
Æ
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