Behind the Headlines Podcast · WKNO/The Daily Memphian

1628: Immigration enforcement doing more harm than good, Memphis lawmakers say

·31 min·2 clips

ICE is creating "a culture of fear," while the highway patrol surge is welcomed for violent crime and warrants.

Eric Barnes sets the conversation up as a look at state and local priorities for 2026. He is joined by Shelby County Commission Chair Shantae Avant and Senate Minority Leader Ramesh Akbari, with Bill Dries from The Daily Memphian at the table. The discussion starts with the Shelby County jail and the hard realities of staffing and managing a dangerous facility. The panel weighs whether local government should ever turn to outside contractors for help. Avant says she is not generally in favor of bringing in outsiders to solve local problems. Akbari points to CoreCivic and the state prison record as a cautionary example. The conversation draws a line between outsourcing management of an existing system and partnering on a new facility. Barnes keeps pushing on the practical questions: who has authority, who can actually act, and what kind of help is acceptable. The discussion then moves to county finances. Barnes raises the state controller’s warning against more borrowing by Shelby County government. He also brings up concerns about tight cash at the end of the year. The panel treats the finances as part of a broader pattern of pressure on local government. The show stays anchored in the specific offices, budgets, and management problems that shape the county’s options. From there, the conversation widens to school governance. The speakers talk about the scale of Memphis-Shelby County Schools and how its size changes the politics around oversight. Barnes and the guests explore what happens when local institutions keep running into operational trouble. The question is not only what is broken, but who should step in, and at what cost. The conversation also returns to state power and the possibility of more management from above. That brings its own tradeoff. More direct oversight can look like a fix. It can also mean more bureaucracy and less democratic control. The officials on the panel do not treat those choices as simple. They keep circling the same problem from different angles: local systems are under strain, but shifting authority away from elected bodies has consequences too. The segment ends with that tension still in place. The listener is left with a clear picture of the issues on the table and the limits of the available answers.

As heard by us

A grounded Memphis policy episode that keeps coming back to who has the power to fix the mess.

Behind the Headlines stays with the practical edges of Memphis politics: jail conditions, county finances, school governance, and the point where state power starts pressing on local government.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a straight read on Memphis power, county pressure, and what the 2026 state session could change.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Behind the Headlines Podcast