PASTOR ORTIZ — On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security, with assistance from the FBI and State Department, launched an enforcement initiative targeting smuggling operations at the U.S.-Mexico border, Nick Niedzwiadek reports for Politico. "We intend to disrupt every facet of the logistical network that these organizations use to succeed," DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on a call with reporters. The effort could not come soon enough for Lorenzo Ortiz, a Baptist pastor in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo. For Vice, Emily Green writes how Ortiz reached an uneasy truce with the powerful Cartel del Noreste: Ortiz agreed not to interfere with cartel kidnappings, and in exchange the cartel would allow him to continue providing shelter and transportation for asylum seekers. "Even today, they operate without any fear of police or the federal government," Ortiz said. "Anybody can see them and nobody does anything. They go into immigration buildings. They are kidnapping everybody, whoever they can." 

DOJ — Attorney General Merrick Garland has rescinded a Trump-era policy memo that blocked so-called "sanctuary cities" from receiving funding from the Department of Justice, Sarah Lynch reports for Reuters. Per the memo, prior grant recipients "will no longer be required to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a condition of their funding," and any pending applications with these conditions will be taken down and reinitiated. In other words, local law enforcement in "sanctuary cities" like New York and Washington, D.C. will no longer be excluded from funding for not carrying out the federal government’s immigration enforcement responsibilities. Your regular reminder there is no legal definition of a "sanctuary city."  

NOOR — Illuminating the plight of refugees around the world, Priyali Sur and Rebecca Wright at CNN tell a heart-rending story about 16-year-old Rohingya refugee Noor Kayas, who fled a refugee camp in Bangladesh and hoped to reach a better life in Malaysia via a small wooden boat back in February. But while Noor's mother was still arranging the payment for the journey, "families of other passengers on board received a call to say the boat's engine had failed. … They had been at sea for just five days. Now, more than two months later, the boat is missing." Advocates and families of the passengers say not enough is being done to save the lives of refugees who make the dangerous, desperate journey: "There is no active search underway for the vessel. And even if the passengers are found alive, then comes the question of who will take them in."