While I was looking for largely empirical measures of harm (for the things described in your point #5, for example), it's also the case that not all harm is readily empiricized, and this is a great example. Undermining the concept of rule-of-law is a very significant harm to a society built on that principle, regardless of who's doing it.

I like to base my take on the relative import of matters of policy on hard data, but that's seldom a complete picture, something I have to remind myself of from time to time.

A question: what do you see as the specific financial mechanism by which undocumented immigrants, generally at or near the bottom in terms of income/assets, are contributing to gentrificaiton. I'm not necessarily disputing the claim, just looking for more details of the thought process.

Thanks for real discourse, btw. Thin on the ground here...

Oh, and for me, there is no such thing as "casual philosophical exercise." =P