A passenger plane heading south caught fire in 1948 and blew up in the sky near Fresno, California killing all 32 aboard. News reports listed names of the three crew members and a guard. The 28 Mexican passengers were noted only as "deportees". The crew and guard were given full burials. Passenger remains were scooped into a common grave with little concern for identification.

Woody Guthrie wrote a poem titled "Deportee" as testimony to northern racism. It was put to music and recorded by over 30 groups and artists from several nations.

The crops are all in and the peaches are gathered
Oranges packed in their creosote bins
They're flying them back to the Mexican border
Twill take all their money to get back again

So farewell to my friends goodbye Roselita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you fly the big aeroplane
All they will call you will be deportees

The skyplane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon
The fire ball lit-up and struck the hills round
Oh who were those friends who were scattered like dry leaves
The radio said they were just deportees

So farewell to my friends goodbye Roselita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you fly the big aeroplane
All they will call you will be deportees

Is this the best way for to plough our good orchards?
Is this the best way to grow our good fruit
To lie on the ground and to rot on the topsoil
And never know no name except deportees

So farewell to my friends goodbye Roselita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you fly the big aeroplane
All they will call you will be deportees

Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted,
Our work contract's finished wev'e got to move on
It's Six hundred miles to the Mexican border,
They chase us like rustlers, like outlaws, like thieves.

So farewell to my friends goodbye Roselita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you fly the big aeroplane
all they will call you will be deportees

A young woman lived in a Pal Trailer Park casita for a while in the late 80's while teaching at the school behind the park. That was until a major portion of the school's faculty was deported and she rode the figurative big airplane north. Something about improper documentation.

Not long after, a family arrived and began doing laundry for trailer park visitors. They didn't have work papers. Those are not available for an unlicensed business. Whoops, there goes another deportee!

A friend who owned one of the trailer park casitas could sometimes be seen hanging around a Chapala office. We exchanged unexpected farewells as he told how immigration informed him he had three days to leave the country and stay out. On questioning, he was told "Because you're working" He explained he didn't have a paying job and would do no more than sometimes minimally assist during sporadic visits. "Doesn't matter, that's working" was the response. Tourist, FM3, and FM2 visas do clearly state prohibited work includes that of a voluntary nature. His plea "But I have a house here" was met with "Not any more".

Are those accorded high status and respect in the expatriate community immune from airsickness? There were three separate and unrelated deporting incidents within a one year period not so many ago. Those were president of the Lake Chapala Society, commander of the local American Legion post, and Howdy, a popular man about town who headed the umbrella group coordinating all expatriate community charities.

You won't have a name when you fly the big aeroplane
All they will call you will be deportees

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