Oh wait... FIRST GENERATION. I think they do mean that his parents were immigrants and he was US born.
Was he? We cannot tell from the article. “I realized I didn’t have a dream,” he says. “There was no dream where I came from.” So where did he come from? The USA, or Mexico? If he came from the USA (being a citizen), then he would have that dream, yes? Most importantly, does he have a SS#, and did he pay his taxes? That's all we care about.
Back in the 1960s, most of those Mexican migrant workers picking grapes didn't have paper, i.e., they came over illegally. Very likely the Reagan 1980's amnesty made them legal.
I am not an advocate of illegals, but I think our immigration policy and laws need to be relax, to be more inclusive. Then, it is much easier to enforce the law. Diversity is the true secret weapon of the US.
I think what he meant by where he was from, was not the USA as a whole, but the labor camp and the fields.
https://riotfest.org/2018/03/flamin-hot-cheetos/ Richard Montanez, who was born in Mexico, grew up as a migrant farm worker in California picking grapes before getting a job as a janitor at the Frito-Lay Rancho Cucamonga factory in 1976. https://www.seattletimes.com/busine...owered-by-spicy-cheetos-and-entrepreneurship/ He grew up on a farm migrant labor camp in Guasti, Calif., a tiny town centered on winemaking. As a child, Montañez — one of 11 siblings — picked grapes at the vineyards and ate a communal table with several other families.
100 illegal immigrants came into the U.S. 1 became a millionaire. 99 became criminals. Worth it? You decide. OR We do the Trump way. Vet them and bring them in based on merit. More millionaires and lesser criminals.