CHICAGO — A top Homeland Security official publicly accused a Chicago Tribune reporter of interfering with federal operations this week — a move media experts say reflects an increasingly hostile posture toward journalists covering immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump’s administration.

The exchange began when Tribune reporter Gregory Pratt posted on X — formerly Twitter — Tuesday that ICE agents were operating on 26th Street in Little Village.

Within hours, Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for public affairs and one of the agency’s top spokespeople, reposted the journalist’s message with her own caption, writing, “Why is a Chicago Tribune reporter telegraphing the location of federal law enforcement?”

The response from McLaughl

See Full Page