President Joe Biden sent an immigration reform bill to Congress on his first day as president.

It includes an eight-year pathway to citizenship and an expansion of protection for children of undocumented immigrants.

This package of immigration actions is being seen by some as a way to modernize the immigration system, but for activists who have been fighting for immigration reform for years, they say it's too soon to celebrate.

From his barber chair in Ossining, Gabriel Gaumbana says he is looking to the new president to fulfill a campaign promise to deliver a pathway to citizenship to 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

He says he is cautiously optimistic about the president's immigration bill that would allow him--as a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program recipient--to apply for a green card.

The relief may come too late for immigrants like his father.

News 12 followed his story avoiding deportation by taking sanctuary in a church back in 2018. But on Christmas Eve, his father was deported to Ecuador.

Gabriel says that stories like this highlight the need for immigration reform.

Once bargaining chips to former President Donald Trump to build a wall, Gaumbana says Congress needs to consider all undocumented immigrants not just "Dreamers" like him.

Republican lawmakers are already opposing Biden's immigration plan. It underscores the uphill fight the measure will face in Congress, which Democrats control by a narrow margin.

State Assemblyman Colin Schmitt has called Biden's bill "blanket amnesty," allowing immigrants who entered the country illegally to cut the line.

"I really think this is an affront to the many immigrants who are both here in the country legally who are working to get to this country legally, who are working through that process," says Schmitt.

Schmitt also worries about the pull factor this legislation may create, speculating it could increase illegal immigration.