For many conservatives, President Trump’s decision to cancel DACA with a six-month delay has at least two benefits. For those on the right such as Marco Rubio who believe that DACA is unconstitutional, ending DACA helps restore constitutional norms. The six-month delay, meanwhile, gives Congress a deadline for a compromise deal on a DACA replacement.

Last night, the president tweeted that he would “revisit” DACA if Congress can’t agree to an alternative in six months. If the White House continues to send signals that it could revisit DACA, it undermines its claim that DACA is unconstitutional and the political position of both the president and the congressional GOP. If DACA is unconstitutional, how can it be brought back in six months? Or, if a constitutional version of DACA can be put in place, why would the president wait six months to institute it?

Waffling on whether to revisit DACA also undercuts the political position of congressional Republicans. If DACA renewals end in six months, Democrats would have two choices (assuming Republicans remain united): Either pass a package on immigration that includes the DREAM Act and populist-conservative priorities, or get nothing. There’s a significant chance Republicans could have won that debate, especially as senior members of the Senate GOP — including Majority Whip John Cornyn — have stressed that a stand-alone DREAM Act will not work.

Being willing to “revisit” DACA, though, offers a third choice for immigration maximalists: Insist on purity, fail to compromise, and then demand that the president follow through on “revisiting” DACA. As long as the White House holds open the option of somehow bringing DACA back, it dangles a shiny escape route in front of Congress. Moreover, a vague promise to “revisit” DACA immediately opens up debate about what this revisiting means, which distracts from the effort of finding a legislative compromise.

If state attorneys general continue to sue to end DACA, this might be taken out of the president’s hands. Nevertheless, the White House might remember this: Immigration moderates are underdogs in the fight against immigration maximalism, so, if the Trump administration hopes to make real legislative progress on immigration, it will need to be incredibly disciplined in its messaging.