The Illegal Line - Will Hoge

Well I must’ve 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 USA

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 six a.m. until the light is gone

Then it’s back to the hotel, split 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 starving 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