American Families United Act

If this passes, approximately 3.6 million undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens would become eligible to seek discretionary relief from removal. The 2-year reopening window would create a surge in motions in immigration courts already facing a 1.6+ million case backlog (as of 2024). DHS enforcement would shift from categorical removal priorities to hardship-based case review, reducing overall deportation numbers but potentially lengthening case processing. Precedent: President Obama's Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA), announced 2014 and enjoined by courts, proposed similar discretion and would have affected 3.7 million people; courts blocked it on administrative-procedure grounds. President Biden's June 2024 parole program for spouses of U.S. citizens and asylum-seekers employed similar discretionary logic and granted protection to approximately 500,000 people before its November 2024 rescission by executive order. State and local jurisdictions in sanctuary cities (California, New York, Illinois) have already adopted similar family-unity enforcement priorities; federal codification would standardize this across all agencies. Immigration courts would face significant caseload increases; the Executive Office for Immigration Review reported 1.6 million pending cases as of April 2024. Cost would primarily fall on DHS and DOJ administrative budgets for expanded discretionary review and judicial hearings, not directly quantified in bill text.