The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it will “wind down” a program protecting hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who were brought into the United States illegally as children.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the Obama administration’s program “an unconstitutional exercise of authority.”

The government will stop processing new applications under President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which has provided nearly 800,000 young immigrants a reprieve from deportation and the ability to work legally in the U.S. Of those recipients, 22,000 reside in New Jersey.

The Trump administration is giving Congress six months to come up with a legislative fix before the government stops renewing permits for people already covered by the program.

President Trump addressed his decision at a tax reform meeting Tuesday afternoon.

“I have a great heart for the folks we’re talking about; a great love for them. People think in terms of children, but they’re really young adults,” Trump said. “Hopefully now Congress will be able to help them and do it properly.”

But Trump’s announcement spurred lots of criticism around the country.

Obama said in a statement, “To target these young people is wrong, because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating, because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military and otherwise contribute to the country we love.”

New Jersey residents who fall under the DACA program held an event with Rep. Frank Pallone to express their outrage over the announcement.

Yeimi Hernandez says that she was brought to the U.S. from Mexico when she was just a year old. She says that she is uncertain what the future will bring.

“We contributed to this society in a good way,” she says. “We’re not evil. We’re good.”

Rep. Pallone says that he has met with many of the DACA recipients who are worried.

“Somehow there’s this notion that they’re going to be detained and sent back to their country of origin, which is for the most part utter nonsense, because I don’t know that those countries would even accept them.

Pallone says that Congress will have a difficult time coming up with new legislation because the Trump administration has taken the position that DACA is unconstitutional.

“That right wing, which is the same right wing in Congress that [Trump is] appealing to, they will not support the BRIDGE Act,” says Pallone.

Rallies were held across the country to support the immigrants that fall under the DACA program, including marches in Philadelphia, Phoenix and New York City.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced Tuesday evening that he plans on suing the Trump administration to protect the thousands of New Yorkers who fall under the program.