I love reading books about the old West -- Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, and those guys -- and lately I’ve been thinking about the illegal immigrant problem. Cowboys, in the mid-1800’s, had all the skills to go into tough areas, into the thick brush and hazardous arroyos and the rough mountainous regions and bring out all the longhorns and other cattle unbranded and unclaimed by any ranch, running wild. They called such a roundup of rogue cattle “running a jerk line.” Once a herd was built, it was moved in a “cattle drive” to the desired destination.
It was hard work, and called for protective gear – thick leather chaps, stirrup fenders, cuffs, and a trained horse to ride. On average, a single herd of cattle on a long drive (for example, San Antonio to Kansas City would be about 800 miles) numbered about 3,000 head. To herd the cattle, a crew of a dozen cowboys was needed, with three horses per cowboy in a ‘cavvy’ traveling with the herd. That’s about one cowboy to every 250 cows (along with 2 dozen extra horses).
Often, herds would combine along the way, bringing the new arrival cowboys and their support into the larger herd. So, how big would the herd BE in a round-up of illegals? ICE reported to Congress there were 425,431 non-citizens with criminal convictions on ICE’s “non-detained docket” - a database of people facing deportation proceedings but who are not held in ICE custody (many are indeed in jails and prisons, but they, too, would have to be included in this round-up). Of these, 13,099 were convicted of homicide, 15,811 were convicted of sexual assault, and 62,231 were convicted of assault for a total of around 80,000 (20% of those on the “non-detained docket”). These are just those with criminal records. Overall, ICE estimates 17 million “undocumented” people in the USA, 2.5% having some sort of criminal record (other than just being here illegally).
