The Illegal Line

Well I must have walked for fourteen days

All that I could carry and I made my way

To the new holy land not a grand parade

Snuck across the border to the U.S.A.

Didn't take too long for me to find some work

Just stood there waitin round in the Texas dirt

And now I lay concrete the way I did back home

From 6 am until the light is gone

Then it's back to the hotel drink a case of beer

One for every person that's livin' here

Four dollars an hour but nobody moans

Cause it's three fifty more than we can get back home

Then I send the money back down to my sweet wife

So she can tell my children 'bout a better life

Papa's tryin hard just to make it fine

Fifty miles north of that illegal line

Late one night they came in through the door

With guns and lights screamin' get on the floor

They cuffed us up tight and hauled us all away

Couldn't hardly understand a single word they'd say

Early next mornin' judge drug us in

He stared us all down just like guilty men

He said any of you boys got a thing to say?

I asked him what would he do if he was in my place

He said there's rules boy and this just ain't the way

And I said sometimes a starvin' family just can't wait

But he slammed down his gavel now I'm doin time

Fifty miles north of that illegal line

Fifty miles north of that illegal line-eeeeee