[CottonBall]

I don’t believe Mexico is hoarding all this money — they would be foolish to be piling up a pyramid of greenbacks — so it either gets recycled into purchases from other countries, investments in other countries, or investments in the U.S.

This $24B figure doesn’t necessarily mean anything at all.

Of course it does. It's a negative cash flow for the U.S. Investments and purchases made with that money from other countries doesn't benefit us one bit - just the opposite.

[AZLiberty]

As the Red State commenter pointed out, this money was earned by creating greater value for the person who gave it to the Mexican who then sent it back to Mexico. The U.S. economy gained from those transactions.

But if, as is likely, we stupidly subsidized these transactions by giving free medical care to the Mexican earner, then we could have a net loss -- but not because he sent his earned money home to Mexico.