President Biden wasted no time after taking office and sent a sweeping immigration reform proposal to Congress. The bill’s lead sponsor told business leaders, faith groups and activists that transforming it into law will take a gargantuan effort.

Biden’s plan would put millions of undocumented people on a pathway to U.S. citizenship. And it re-imagines key parts of the immigration system.

Sen. Bob Menendez told supporters he’s getting ready to introduce the bill. The New Jersey Democrat has no illusions about what lies ahead.  

“I know from my time in the Gang of Eight that passing immigration reform through the senate, particularly, is a Herculean task,” he said.

The Gang of Eight was a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

Arizona is home to nearly 300,000 unauthorized immigrants, says the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. Most of them have lived in the U.S. for at least a decade. And nearly one in five has lived here for 20 years or more.

Biden’s immigration proposal wants so-called Dreamers, people with Temporary Protected Status, and certain farmworkers to get green cards right away.

Menendez reminded groups that took part in a Zoom briefing that the measure will need support from at least nine Republicans to pass the Senate. 

“Beyond Democrats, we will need Republicans to come to this with a different spirit. That every legitimate effort for reform is not amnesty,” he said.

Menendez said that more than nine Republicans voted for the last immigration reform bill that passed the U.S. Senate in 2013. But he noted that among that group were former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and the late John McCain.