To the country that loves to hate us… Our parents loved you first.

They came to you with open hearts and calloused hands, believing in your promises of opportunity and prosperity.

They left behind their families, their land, their culture – everything familiar – because you whispered to them that their sacrifice would be worth it.

They believed in you so deeply they were willing to endure your scorn, your dismissal, your endless walls of bureaucracy, racism and prejudice.

They believed in the version of you that we can only believe exists in other realities...

You took their love and gave them neglect in return.

You took their labor and called them “illegal.”

You took their ambition and labeled it “a threat.”

You love their hard work but hate the hands that made it possible.

And despite all of that, here we are — their children.

The first generation born to those who gave you everything and got so little back.

We see your indifference, your double standards, your toxicity and we refuse to accept it.

We are the dreamers, the builders, the doers, we’re the very essence of the American Dream you hold so dear.

We transform adversity into opportunity and turn rejection into resilience.

We’ve been self-starters for generations, out of both survival and defiance.

We are the students who translate legal forms by day and study for exams by night. We are the parents working three jobs so our children can be the first in our family to graduate college & even high school.

We are the immigrant entrepreneurs who take the risks no one else dares to take, because survival is something we’ve mastered and ambition is in our DNA.

We are the products of their sacrifices, and we carry their dreams like torches.

We are the guides to a world they couldn’t fully understand but embraced anyway.

We are the realization of the life they wanted but couldn’t have.

You love to hate us because we remind you of promises you never intended to keep.

But we owe it to our parents to love you anyway. Not because you deserve it, but because they do.

They poured their love into this land, believing it would one day love their children back.

We won’t let their sacrifices go unnoticed.

We owe it to them to keep fighting for the life they envisioned when they first stepped onto your soil.

Our parents didn’t come here to be small, and neither will we.

We carry the weight of two worlds on our shoulders, a balancing act that has made us stronger, more resourceful, and more ambitious than you’ll ever know.

So here’s the truth, America: we don’t need your permission to belong on stolen land.

We don’t need your applause to succeed.

Our parents taught us how to thrive in the shadows of a system that was never designed for us, but this time we’ll keep thriving in the light.

Because their love for you was never about approval – it was about hope.

It was about faith in the possibility of a better life. And now, it’s our turn to carry that hope forward.

Not because you’ve earned it, but because we owe it to them.

We are the 200% generation,

100% American and 100% Immigrant-made.

We don’t just balance two worlds; we thrive because of them.

Our roots are deep, nourished by the sacrifices of our parents and the culture they left behind.

Our branches are strong, reaching for the opportunities they dreamed of but could never grasp.

Our parents loved you first.

They gave you their best, even when you gave them your worst.

And we, their children, will not let their love be forgotten.

America is a place where we all belong.