The 80:20 Beginning

Many conservatives have queried the pace of illegal immigrant deportation recently, saying that the few hundred or so deportations made so far are not going to make a dent in the massive illegal immigrant population.

That’s true, but we need to be mindful of the “80:20” approximate rule of thumb:  that 20% of the population, in any given activity, account for 80% of that activity.  (We all know that in the supermarket business, for example, the “top” 20% of a store’s customers — in spending terms — account for about 78% of total sales;  less well-known is that those 20% also generate about 93% of a store’s total gross profit.  They are the people who keep the store’s doors open.)

And it’s pretty much the same with criminal behavior.  When NYfC mayor Rudi Giuliani first went after crime in that benighted city, his “Broken Windows” strategy –arresting petty criminals as fast as they could be arrested — was at first a source of derision.  That derision ceased when it became apparent that crime fell precipitously because those “petty” criminals accounted for a disproportionate percentage of total crime.

And here’s a pointer from the very first round of ICE arrests:

Fox News witnessed ICE Boston make eight arrests, including multiple MS-13, Interpol Red Notices, murder and rape suspects, and a volatile Haitian gang member with 18 convictions in recent years who told our cameras that he “ain’t going back to Haiti” and “f— Trump, Biden forever!”

Note:  just one fucking mope had been convicted eighteen times over a couple of years.  (Exactly why this asshole wasn’t still in jail for Crime #1, #2 or #3 is a topic for another time. #3StrikesRule)  If ever there was a candidate for the Pinochet Example, this would be one.

And I doubt that too many people in his home country would shed a tear at his disappearance either.

In any event, going after the most egregious offenders is not going to affect the total illegal immigrant number — but it sure as hell is going to improve public safety.

And by the way, the article makes it plain that in going after the worst first, there will be “collateral” arrests and deportations as well.  Of course it will;  criminals tend to band together (e.g. MS-13), so by all means toss their asses onto the one-way C-135 flights as well.

More to the point is that foreign criminals are soon going to become aware that the U.S. is not going to be the soft target that it used to be, and they may be deterred from coming here to set up, for example, burglary gangs.

Keep it going, guys.  Gooder and harder, to quote Insty.