On a dark stretch of border
Near ol' Mexico
Folks dressed up in ponchos
Lined up ready to go
Up ahead is the U.S.
Where they think life will be best
They want to find jobs and to make it big
Just like that Paul Rodriguez

There she stood out in Pheonix
Her face looking so vain
And in her hand a just-signed bill
Which had the blessing of old John McCain
It was Governor Brewer
And she's GOP-red
As the wetbacks came up to her door
She smirked as she said...

"Welcome to the State of Arizona
Show your papers, please
Or you'll have to leave
No new immigrants in the State of Arizona
Show you're legal here
Or you'll disappear."

The left was boldly against it
The right wing likes it a lot
Are we protecting all our local jobs
Or just bigots?
Will they challenge in courtrooms
Or let it slide?
What questions will be asked
Those folks pulled aside?

"Where exactly were you born?
And were you just lyin'?
(And, oh,) Who was our state's Senators
In nineteen-sixty-nine?"
And we thought racial profiling
Was far away
Ev'ry Latino in the whole damn state
Will hear coppers say:

"Welcome to the State of Arizona
Such a lovely place
If you're pale of face
You'd better get out of the State of Arizona
'No habla ingles?'
You're under arrest!"

No Cinco de Mayo
No Daylight Savings Time
(Brewer says,) "We are all just trying to live
In the past sublime."
And right next door in Cali
The Gov'nor's getting blue:
"If we pass a similar law,
Will they boot Austrians, too?!"

Last thing that was seen was
Folks had run like matadors
Away from all the precious jobs
To the homes they knew before
"Relax," said Guv Brewer
"We have cops who are discreet
You may catch heat from our finest folks
But, hell, it's a dry heat!"