President Donald Trump Friday morning sent a message to Congressional Democrats: don’t even think about asking for federal authorization of DACA unless you’re also willing to pay for the border wall and a host of other immigration changes.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was initially authorized by a 2012 executive order from then-President Barack Obama. Under the program, those without lawful status as of June 15, 2012, could apply for deferred immigration status for two years, with renewals. The guidelines included a requirement that the application had lived in the United States since June 15, 2007, entered the country before the 16th birthday and was in school or the military. Under DACA status, the person could legally work and/or pursue an education.

Trump announced in October that the program would end in March, 2018, but held out a six-month reprieve to allow Congress time to officially sanction the program. 

At least one Democratic member of Colorado’s delegation had a few choice words in response to Trump’s latest demand.

Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver told Colorado Politics that nearly 800,000 Dreamers “fear the future as time runs out on the protections this country granted them out of compassion and a sense of justice in 2012.”

It’s “cruel for the president to hold their fates hostage now for the sake of an ill-conceived campaign gimmick,” DeGette said. “What our nation needs is serious and bipartisan solutions to our broken immigration system, not political gamesmanship that destroys lives.”

Trump made building an extended border wall between the United States and Mexico a key campaign promise, even threatening to shut down the U.S. government last summer unless Congress finds a way to pay for it. That threat may come up again; earlier this month, Congress authorized a funding extension that ends on January 19, and Democrats are adamant that the DACA program be included in a 2018 spending resolution. 

The cost is estimated at somewhere between $20 billion and $25 billion. It would take about three years to build. Trump has promised Mexico would pay for the wall, but the Mexican government has steadfastly refused to pay for it or even agree that it should be built at all.

Last August, in a phone call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Trump asked that the Mexican government stay quiet about their refusal to cover the cost.

“But you cannot say anymore that the United States is going to pay for the wall. I am just going to say that we are working it out,” Trump told Nieto, according to a transcript of the phone call. “But you cannot say that to the press. The press is going to go with that and I cannot live with that. You cannot say that to the press because I cannot negotiate under those circumstances.”

Sen. Michael Bennet of Denver and fellow Democratic Reps. Jared Polis of Boulder and Ed Perlmutter of Arvada did not return calls for comment on Trump’s latest demand.