ICE now says it arrested 82 illegal aliens in a September operation in Massachusetts, more than double the earlier estimate. Somebody finally went back and counted properly, and the count came up big.

The revision came straight from ICE, as reported by MSN. The agency didn't lay out its reasons for the low early figure, so I won't put words in its mouth. What I will tell you, from 26 years of doing this work, is that early numbers are always soft. Arrests get made in the field, reports get written after, and the paperwork catches up on its own schedule. The initial figure is almost never the final one, and it usually moves up. That's why I don't print a number until the dust settles. The dust has settled. It's 82.

The source doesn't say how these arrests were made, so anything you hear about methods is speculation. Take the general principle as my analysis, not reporting on this operation: when a jail honors an ICE detainer, ICE can take custody of an alien in a controlled setting. When a jail refuses, agents have to go find that person somewhere else, on ICE's time and dime. From where I sit, the jurisdictions that make that job harder have no standing to complain when the operations get bigger and more visible. If you want quiet enforcement, cooperate.

The predictable response from the usual crowd to any big revised number is that ICE grabbed people it wasn't looking for. Whether that happened here, the source doesn't say, and I'm not going to pretend it does. General principle again: if you're in the country illegally, you're deportable. That's been the law for decades. Complain to your member of Congress, not to the agent doing his job.

Why does the revised number matter? Because the count is how you measure enforcement. Early estimates get repeated, the lower number sticks in the public mind, and then the actual figure arrives with a shrug. Eighty-two arrests in one operation is worth marking down correctly. If we're going to argue about these operations, we should argue about the real numbers.

I spent 26 years keeping a notebook, and the first lesson was that the initial report is almost always wrong. Numbers grow as the reports come in. The professionals wait for the final tally. This one came in at 82.

The scoreboard: 82 arrests, one operation, and a revised count worth doubling.