Deportee
Joan Baez Lyrics

The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting
The harvest is complete but due to a lack of workers to pick the produce, the fruits are deteriorating and wasting away.

The oranges are packed in the creosote dumps
The surplus of oranges is being disposed of in large rubbish dumps, thanks to diminished demand.

They're flying you back to the Mexico border
Migrants are being taken to the Mexican border for deportation and prevented from returning to the U.S.

To pay all your money to wade back again
The migrants without legal permits must pay a large sum to return to the U.S., only for the pattern to repeat itself.

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
The singer is bidding farewell to her friends, loved ones, and peers among the deported immigrants.

Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
The singer is saying goodbye to all her friends, including those named Jesus and Maria.

You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
The deported immigrants are stripped of their identities and reduced to being referred to as nameless deportees.

All they will call you will be deportees
The only title given to the migrants on the plane will be 'deportees,' all lumped together in the eyes of the authorities.

My father's own father, he waded that river
The singer's grandfather himself had to cross the border, perhaps unlawfully, to move to America.

They took all the money he made in his life
The father's wages were taken away, effectively generating unpaid labor, with consequences affecting succeeding generations.

My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees
The singer's siblings come to the same place to work on the fruit trees.

They rode the big trucks till they lay down and die
The siblings worked and contracted sickness and disease, which cost them their lives.

The skyplane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon
A disaster occurred where a plane was caught on fire and destroyed in Los Gatos Canyon.

A fireball of lightning, and it shook all the hills
The crash that occurred in Los Gatos Canyon caused overwhelming loss as signified by the lightning and shaking of mountains.

Who are these comrades that died like the dry leaves
The singer questions the identities of those deportees who died and compare them to individual dry leaves, a questioning of status.

The radio tells me they're just deportees
The radio provides definite confirmation that those who perished were just deportees.

We died in your hills and we died in your deserts
The singer points out harsh realities that the illegal migrants die in myriad landscapes within the borders of the country they are trying to come into.

We died in your valleys we died on your plains
Statistically significant numbers of illegal migrants are dying over geographic regions from valleys to flatlands.

We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes
In addition to hills and deserts, many undocumented migrants are dying in the brush, hiding under trees, and other rural areas.

Both sides of the river we died just the same
Regardless of the side of the border, undocumented migrants are dying the same way while attempting to cross.

Some of us are illegal, and others not wanted
Some of the people crossing the border are here illegally while others came here for work but were run out by harsh conditions and lack of potential to thrive.

Our work contract's out and we have to move on
Once their work agreement comes to a close, they are forced to leave to find other work elsewhere.

But it's six hundred miles to that Mexican border
To those without legal documentation, fleeing is the best and the only option, but it is a long process fraught with danger and many miles of avoiding the border patrol.

They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.
Undocumented immigrants can be viewed as criminals and hunted down like bandits by the United States authorities.

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards
The singer affirms her objection to the cruel process of exploitation of illegal migrants for the sake of farm and agriculture production.

Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit
The fact that harsh exploitation of immigrants is responsible for growing the best produce raises ethical questions about production values.

To fall like dry leaves and rot on the topsoil
Immigrants come to the United States expecting a better life and opportunities, but are exploited and exploited to the point where they're rotting in despair in dehumanizing circumstances.

And be called by no name except 'deportee'
Immigrants who make this journey and are deported are robbed of their dignity, forced to bear the sole title of 'deportee' by the U.S. immigration system.