Congress now has six months to do something they have not done in years: come up with a compromise on immigration reform, and political experts tell 1200 WOAI news that it's not just the moderate Republicans who will be under pressure to bend.
"Democrats are going to have to come to the table as well and give in, somewhat, in terms of whom this applies to and what it means long term," Rice University's Mark Jones says.
President Donald Trump, this week, canceled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shielded from deportation the children of illegal immigrants who were brought here as kids. Texas is second only to California with about 120,000 applications approved.
President Trump gave a six month phase out period, granting Congress time to act before the DACA window expires.
Jones says Congress has been shoving the issue of immigration reform under the carpet for years. Now, the pressure is on, especially for moderate republicans.
"While some will agree with the idea of something permanent, there is fear that it could come back to haunt them," he explained.
If congress fails to act, all of those shielded by DACA simply become undocumented migrants, like anybody else who illegally crosses the border. It comes at a time when the immigration court system is gridlocked.
The latest records show that, at the end of July, there were 617,527 amnesty cases pending. That's an all-time high. San Antonio immigration attorney Lance Curtright worries about the effect of some 800,000 DACA recipients dumped into the system.
"The only way to really fix it is by having Congressional action to say, okay, some of these people should get legal status without having to see a judge, saving our judicial resources for those cases which most need them."