Jaramillo uses Miguel and Elena’s fictional story to call attention to the real, often harrowing experiences of immigrants. In the novel’s backmatter section titled “About This Book,” Jaramillo writes that “La Línea is fiction, but it is based on real events” (127). Jaramillo includes brief descriptions of the factual bases of many of the novel’s incidents. Immigrants do ride freight trains like the mata gente. Vigilante militia groups comprised of US citizens do patrol the US-Mexico border. Jaramillo references Operation Gatekeeper, an actual immigration policy enacted by the Clinton administration in 1994 in which US Border Patrol stopped immigrants from entering at traditional crossings, forcing them to take more hazardous desert routes. Jaramillo also offers statistics showing the number of undocumented immigrants in the US was close to 10 million. Of those, roughly 60% were from Mexico, 20% from Central America, and 20% from Asia.

These statistics have changed since the publication of La Línea, and public opinion toward immigration has also changed, making it an emotional and hotly contested partisan issue.

The number of immigrants attempting to enter the US has increased since Jaramillo wrote La Línea. In the fiscal year 2021, the US Border patrol reported that 1,659,206 immigrants and asylum-seekers were apprehended by Customs and Border Protection at the US-Mexico border,

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