This means that the concentration of undocumented immigrants (and legal immigrants likely to get deported anyway) magnifies the overall economic cost. Deport half a percent of the work force? Not good. Deport 50% of agricultural workers, which is the same number? Very, very bad 3/

For econ nerds: The economic cost of deportations, like the economic cost of tariffs, is very nonlinear in the scale of the policy. Deporting 10% of an industry's workers is much more than twice as costly as deporting 5% 2/