I’ve heard it from reverends, lawmakers, attorneys and colleagues. “Just follow the money, Vallery.”

So I did.

I’m sure it’s upsetting to some. And the irony isn’t lost to the intelligent ones–We are making money off people many want out of here as quickly as possible.

The rate? About $54 a day (if they’re locked up on immigration-related charges) and $19 an hour for driving them to and from jails, according to county sheriff’s department officials. It results in millions in revenues for many counties in the state.

Sure, I could have written an analysis on the taxpayer burden of illegal immigration, but that story has been done about healthcare, incarceration, and education.

I could have done a story about how illegal immigrants are paying income taxes or how many experts are split over the real economic toll of illegal immigration.

But at its purest form, this story was just way for me to shine a mirror on ourselves.

It’s a little more complicated, perhaps, than we’d like to think.