The 21st Show

The 100-Mile ‘Border Zone’; A Shortage Of Rural Veterinarians; Illinois Politics

By Liz Westfield, Alan Montecillo, Libby Foster and Robin Linn
 

Gregory Bull/AP

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On the 21st: Why Border Patrol agents have greater authority to board buses and trains and search for people without documents within 100 miles of any external boundary in the US. Plus, what's behind the shortage of veterinarians in rural areas? And, we'll recap the week in state politics. 

In the year and a half since President Trump took office, we’ve been hearing about how federal authorities have been more aggressive in detaining and deporting unauthorized immigrants. You also may be hearing more terms and phrases around this issue - whether it’s ICE, sanctuary cities, or family detentions.

But there’s another important term that you should know about - one that you might not have heard of: it’s called “the border zone.” It’s an area where border patrol agents can get on buses and trains to search for people without documentation - all without a warrant.

And as it turns out, most people in the US live within this area.

To help us understand this, we were joined by Ed Yohnka, communications and public policy director with the ACLU of Illinois.

 Plus—

If you ate meat this past Fourth of July, you have a veterinarian to thank for making sure it was safe. Vets in farm communities play a critical role in making sure the nation’s livestock are free from diseases. But for years, there haven’t been enough vets in hundreds of rural counties across the country.

Esther Honig reported on this issue recently for Harvest Public Media. She’s based at K-U-N-C in northern Colorado and joinrf us from there.

Larry Firkins was also with us. He’s associate dean of public engagement at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine.

And—

the Fourth of July holiday might have been right in the middle of last week, but there’s still plenty of state politics news to get to. Governor Rauner visited Champaign-Urbana to apologize for some negative comments he made about the area - he and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel also got into a public spat over protests in Chicago this past weekend.

And, there are also now officially two more candidates on the ballot for governor this fall.

As we do every Monday, we’re recapping the week in Illinois politics. Brian Mackey is Illinois Public Radio’s statehouse reporter, Tony Arnold is a political reporter with WBEZ.

Story source: WILL