U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman expressed optimism Wednesday that the GOP-controlled House will take up legislation to protect young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children from deportation, although the Aurora Republican also stressed that a rare maneuver he initiated earlier in the week might still be necessary to force a vote.

But Coffman hasn’t always championed young, undocumented immigrants – and the Democrats hoping to challenge him in next year’s election slammed his move as a “breathtakingly cynical reelection maneuver” and too little, too late.

Coffman filed what’s known as a discharge petition Tuesday for a bipartisan bill he introduced in January that would extend provisions of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program for three years in order to give Congress a chance to pass longer-term immigration reform. DACA, established in 2012 by President Obama via an executive order, protects certain immigrants who were children when they arrived in the U.S. illegally – sometimes called Dreamers – with a reprieve from deportation and permission to work and attend school.

Coffman formally filed the petition hours after the Trump administration announced plans to rescind DACA in six months and urged Congress to come up with a legislative fix before the federal government stops renewing permits for the 800,000 people already covered by the program.

“I’ve met many of these young people in Colorado who were brought to the United States as children and who grew up here, who went to school here and who often know of no other country,” Coffman said in a statement. “The DACA program that has given them an opportunity to come out of the shadows, legally work, and pursue higher education,” He also said President Trump was right to reverse DACA because Obama didn’t have the constitutional authority to enact it on his own.

If 218 House members sign Coffman’s petition, it will set in motion a floor vote on the BRIDGE Act – it stands for Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow our Economy – even if GOP leadership blocks it it.

Assuming every Democratic member of the House signs the petition, Coffman would need 23 Republicans to get on board. At last count, he had 12 Republican co-sponsors for the legislation, along with 13 Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver. (There’s a companion bill in the Senate, sponsored by South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham and Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin.)

“I see the discharge petition as a way to bring legislation to the floor should Republican leadership fail to allow a floor vote on a bill to protect these young people,” Coffman said in a statement.

Coffman said Wednesday that House Speaker Paul Ryan assured him he intends to work on “an immigration measure that includes protection for DACA kids,” although Coffman also noted that his discharge petition “will continue to be an outlet if we can’t get a bill to the floor.”

Coffman signed on in late July as a cosponsor of the Dream Act of 2017, a bipartisan bill that goes further than his BRIDGE Act by making the DACA protections permanent and setting a path to citizenship for recipients. He was also an original cosponsor of a Republican bill introduced in March called the Recognizing America’s Children Act, which would create a renewable five-year “conditional permanent resident” status for DACA participants and a path toward citizenship after 10 years in the program.

It’s a sharp contrast from earlier Coffman’s positions on a prior version of the Dream Act and legislation concerning DACA, although his stance toward young immigrants has been shifting over time.

In 2010, Coffman – serving his first term representing the heavily Republican 6th Congressional District before redistricting turned it into an evenly divided swing seat – explained his vote against the Dream Act in a press release: “The Dream Act will be a nightmare for the American people. No doubt, we need immigration reform but the Dream Act is written far too broadly and it will only encourage more illegal immigration, promote chain migration, and will be a magnet for fraud.” Three years later, Coffman voted for an amendment to keep DACA from going into effect.

Coffman sponsored legislation in 2013 that would allow certain young, undocumented immigrants a path toward citizenship by serving in the U.S. military. And in 2014, he voted against a Republican-sponsored effort to end DACA.

Jason Crow, one of three Democrats running in a primary to challenge Coffman, was having none of it this week.

“DACA has allowed thousands of innocent children the opportunity to achieve the American dream, contribute to our economy and proudly serve our country. Yet, Congressman Mike Coffman literally called the DREAM Act ‘a nightmare’ as he voted against it in Congress,” Crow said Tuesday in a statement.

Taking aim at Coffman’s discharge petition and the BRIDGE Act, Crow continued, “Today, responding to President Trump’s heartless reversal of DACA, Congressman Coffman proposes a breathtakingly cynical reelection maneuver – kicking the can down the road even further with a measure that would give Congress three more years to find a permanent solution like the DREAM Act Coffman voted to kill. Coffman wants Coloradans to believe he’s presenting an alternative to President Trump on DACA, but we will not be fooled.”

Levi Tillemann tore into Trump’s decision to end DACA and dismissed Coffman’s legislative move.

“Trump’s decision on DACA was the wrong thing to do,” Tillemann said in a Facebook post. “It goes against basic decency and humanity. White supremacists and nativists are, no doubt, cheering his decision. Trump’s allies and enablers are complicit.”

As for Coffman, Tillemann told Colorado Politics, “I’ll just say that he had the opportunity to demonstrate real leadership and patriotism when it could have made a difference: before the election. Instead of standing up for what was right in November, he sat on his hands. He let the bull walk right into the china shop – now we’re all paying the price.”

The third Democrat running in the primary, David Aarestad, lamented in a Facebook post that Trump “seeks primarily to divide and attack. Today’s act against DACA, under a misleading story of ‘giving Congress a chance to act’ is a good example. Congress has always had the power to act, it has chosen not to. And the Dreamers are stuck in limbo. We need to stand by our families and neighbors. The Dreamers are important parts of our communities and deserve better than being treated as a political stunt.”