Chapter Nine: A Funeral in Mexico

  1. . The account of Antonia’s death draws on my July 1, 2013, interview in Santa Maria Asunción with Trinidad Castro Vargas, who was nearby when it happened.

  2. . From my October 29, 2013, interview with Memphis immigration attorney Greg Siskind.

  3. . Stats on Border Patrol staffing and budgets come from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, www.cbp.gov. See also Matt Graham, “Border Security Assets,” Bipartisan Policy Center, July 2013. Numbers cited refer to the Border Patrol Program budget, which is one part of the larger budget for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

  4. . Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, More Mexicans Leaving than Coming to the U.S. (Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, November 19, 2015).

  5. . See my article “Not a Citizen? No Problem; Illegal Immigrants Meet Little Resistance Getting Home Loans,” The Commercial Appeal, November 12, 2006.

  6. . Brian Bennett, “Figures Skew Number Obama Deports; Immigrants beyond the Border Area Are Actually Less Likely to Be Kicked Out Now,” Los Angeles Times, April 2, 2014.

  7. . Samuel Huntington, “The Hispanic Challenge,” Foreign Policy, October 28, 2009.

  8. . Jeffrey S. Passel, D’Vera Cohn, Jens Manuel Krogstad and Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, As Growth Stalls, Unauthorized Immigrant Population Becomes More Settled (Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, September 3, 2014). http://www.pewhispanic.org/2014/09/03/as-growth-stalls-unauthorized-immigrant-population-becomes-more-settled/

  9. . The education statistics come from Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, or INEGI, specifically the table “Características educativas de la población.” http://www3.inegi.org.mx/sistemas/sisept/default.aspx?t=medu09&s=est&c=26364 (accessed July 2015).

  10. . Data on fertility rates come from Encuesta Nacional de la Dinámica Demográfica ENADID 2014, Principales Resultados, produced by INEGI and Consejo Nacional de Población (CONAPO), July 9, 2015, p. 7. http://www.inegi.org.mx/est/contenidos/proyectos/encuestas/hogares/especiales/enadid/enadid2014/doc/resultados_enadid14.pdf

  11. . María del Rosario Cárdenas Elizalde and colleagues, “Informe de pobreza en Mexico 2012,” Consejo Nacional de Evaluación de la Politica de Desarrollo Social (CONEVAL). http://www.coneval.gob.mx/Medicion/Paginas/Informe-de-Pobreza-2012.aspx