Montoya, a Daca recipient and the founder of a grassroots immigrant rights organization in Phoenix, Arizona, was concerned not just for herself but for the people who work for her.

I have as an employee a US citizen, she said Tuesday. What does it mean if I get taken away?

For Angelica Hernandez, a mechanical engineer at an energy efficiency company in Chandler, Arizona, the stakes are incredibly high. Hernandez was born in Mexico, but came to the US at the age of nine. She received Daca when she was studying for a masters degree at Stanford. She bought a house, married another Daca recipient, and has two children who are US citizens.

Because of all of the rumors, you kind of mentally prepare for what could happen, but youre never actually fully prepared, she said. I dont qualify for any type of way for me to become legalized. Were definitely looking at a plan to protect my daughters in case we are deported.

Trumps decision to rescind the program puts the onus on Congress to address the situation of the Dreamers and all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US legislatively. It also raises the prospect of unsavory negotiations pitting one group of immigrants against another: White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that Trump would not support a standalone bill granting legal status to Dreamers.

On Tuesday night, more uncertainty was thrown into the mix when Trump tweeted cryptically that if Congress did not act, then he would revisit this issue.

For activists like Sheridan Aguirre, a Daca recipient and organizer with United We Dream, political dealmaking would be untenable.

We will not be used as bargaining chips, Aguirre said Tuesday morning from outside the White House, where he had joined a rally and protest. We do not want any legislation that throws our parents under the bus and results in them being criminalized, or adds more money for border enforcement.

The recision of Daca was met with outrage from Democratic lawmakers, business and technology leaders, and immigrant rights advocates. Protests erupted in cities across the country, including Denver, where thousands of high school students walked out of school.

Belen Sisa, 23, a Daca recipient and senior at Arizona State University, joined one of those protests, marching with fellow immigrant rights activists to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) office in Phoenix after Sessions announcement Tuesday morning.

But as the march continued, Sisa had to peel away to go inside. She had a 12pm appointment to have her fingerprints taken one of the steps she must fulfill to have her Daca status renewed for two more years.

I feel very happy that Im going to be able to fit into the window of people who are going to be able to renew, but it also makes me a little bit mad, Sisa said. Im going through this entire application process, paying fees, and doing all these things that they expect of me, when the message is really clear that Im not valued as a human.

They just go about business like nothing happened. The person who was taking my fingerprints asked me how my morning was.