Last September, President Trump announced no new applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program would be processed and the program would be ended in six months. Time has passed, and today is that final day. But the current status of the law is uncertain and the Dreamers in the U.S. are unable to make plans, get work permits or in some cases receive medical care because of inaction and chaos in Washington.

This situation is a crisis created and manufactured entirely by Trump. He created the six-month deadline; he’s the force behind ending DACA as we know it. Nonetheless, Trump has tried to pass all responsibility for his unilateral action onto others — Congress, the Democrats, the Circuit Court of Appeals in California and, most recently, the Supreme Court. 

To add to the stress and confusion Dreamers are experiencing, Trump has taken vacillating and inconsistent positions on what he would consider an acceptable rewrite of the original 2012 DACA executive order. Some days, Trump is open to everything and welcomes Dreamers “with heart.” Other days the Mexico wall is one of four preconditions to any changes in DACA that the president would accept. 

Dick Durbin, senator from Illinois, has commented that Trump’s vacillations make passage of a bill in Congress unlikely, even though some proposals have bipartisan support. While that environment frustrates members of Congress, the situation for Dreamers is far worse.

A California court ruled that the administration must continue to accept DACA renewal applications. Trying to bypass the appeals process, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to rule on that case. Predictably, the Supreme Court declined. But from September — when Trump announced the end of DACA — until the court ruling in January, Dreamers (who are all in the U.S. on renewable two-year Visas) were prohibited from applying for renewal. With uncertain residency status, Dreamers are living in limbo. Responsible government officials are stymied as well; at least 20,000 people who applied before the September announcement still have not had their applications processed. 

For now, Dreamers are here, but their comfort is only temporary. They cannot make plans; they cannot feel secure. Dreamers have spent most of their lives here and have gone through extensive vetting. They deserve relief from the nightmare of uncertainty they are living under. President Trump should rescind his announcement.