Yes, it’s a command from apt-get that apt only passes through:

–auto-remove, --autoremove
If the command is either install or remove, then this option acts like running the autoremove command, removing unused dependency packages. Configuration Item: APT::Get::AutomaticRemove.

–with-new-pkgs
Allow installing new packages when used in conjunction with upgrade. This is useful if the update of an installed package requires new dependencies to be installed. Instead of holding the package back upgrade will upgrade the package and install the new dependencies. Note that upgrade with this option will never remove packages, only allow adding new ones. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Upgrade-Allow-New.

-U, --update
Run the update command before the specified command. This is supported for commands installing, removing, or upgrading packages such as install, remove, safe-upgrade, full-upgrade. This can be useful to ensure a command always installs the latest versions, or, in combination with the –snapshot option to make sure the snapshot is present when install is being run.

https://manpages.debian.org/trixie/apt/apt-get.8.en.html