Anthem · Barking Justice Music
Immigrant Song
The hands that built this country are the same hands being told they don’t belong.
About this anthem
Immigrant Song follows the people who helped build America and are still being asked whether they belong.
From Ellis Island to the Rio Grande, immigrants laid railroad tracks, worked the fields, nursed the sick, built towns, served under the flag, and kept the country moving. Yet the same nation that depends on their labor can turn around and treat their presence as a threat.
The anthem exposes that contradiction. Immigrants are welcomed when their work is needed, hired by interests that benefit from their vulnerability, blamed when politics needs an enemy, and discarded when the votes have been counted. It asks how a country can celebrate the hands that built it while denying dignity to the people attached to those hands.
Immigrant Song is featured in Protect the Least of Us, the moral center of Barking Justice Radio’s Policy Becomes Harm reporting. That program tests laws, budgets, and public systems by asking what happens to the people with the least power to resist their consequences.
This song applies that test to America’s promise of freedom. A nation cannot depend on people, profit from them, and then deny that they belong. Freedom that protects only some of the people who built the country was never freedom for all.
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Lyrics
Verse 1
They came with nothing, just hope in hand, chasing a dream on new promised land. From Ellis Island to the Rio’s bend, seeking a place where they could begin. They worked the fields, they laid the track, built the towns, never looked back. With sweat and heart, they gave their best, still some say they don’t belong like all the rest.
Chorus
This land was built on love, not fear, by hands of all, far and near. If you push them out, you lose the fight, ’cause freedom ain’t just pure and white.
Verse 2
Through fire and war, they stood side by side, fought for a flag that tried to divide. They gave their sons, their daughters too, for a country that asks, “who are you?” They picked the crops, they nursed the ill, kept this nation moving still. But some just see a foreign face, not the hands that built this place.
Verse 3
And now they’re pawns in a power game, shipped like cattle, called names. Used for votes, then cast aside, when it don’t fit the party line. Walls are built and doors slammed shut, while the rich still hire ’em up. Blame ’em when the times get tough, then forget their blood runs through us.
Bridge
Now fear’s a fire that burns too bright, turns neighbor against neighbor overnight. Lies are sold and hate takes root, all dressed up in a three-piece suit.
Verse 4
So tell the children, teach ’em right, it ain’t the fear, but love that fights. This land was made for every soul, not just the few who think they control. For every wall, there’s someone strong, who’ll break it down with love and song. America ain’t just one kind, it’s every shade and every mind.
Final Chorus
This land was built on love, not fear, by hands of all, from far and near. The melting pot that made us strong, different voices, same old song. If you push ’em out, you lose the fight, ’cause freedom ain’t just pure and white.
Outro
Presented by Barking Justice Music, where truth finds its voice.
Related program
Segment Banner Song For
Protect the Least of Us
The moral center of Barking Justice Radio’s Policy Becomes Harm reporting, testing every law, every budget, and every policy against who it protects.
Tags
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