CNG Members at Chicago Tribune win Pulitzer for coverage of Midway Blitz!

by: Dave Mulcahey, CNG co-treasurer and editor at Tribune News Service

Just over eight months ago, the Department of Homeland Security deployed thousands of federal agents to Illinois to carry out militarized sweeps of undocumented immigrants and crack down on the sanctuary policies of the state, Cook County, Chicago, and its suburbs. 

Operation Midway Blitz, as it was called, quickly devolved into violence, intimidation and official misconduct. Less than a week after the operation began, ICE agents shot and killed an immigrant fleeing arrest in a car. Later that month, agents clad in military fatigues raided a South Side apartment building, with helicopters hovering and snipers positioned on the roof, breaking down doors and leading terrified residents outdoors, where children were separated from parents.  

A shocking campaign of government force was beginning that would persist for months and later be replicated in Minneapolis.

From the very start, members of the Chicago NewsGuild were at work, reporting at the scenes of ICE activity and adding perspective to help citizens make sense of the alarming federal dragnet. CNG reporters and photographers from the Chicago Reader, Sun-Times and Tribune were on the streets in neighborhoods as agents made arrests and teargassed bystanders. They were among the crowds at protests at DHS headquarters at Bridgeview and elsewhere. They were in courtrooms as various challenges were brought against the legality of federal tactics. They were talking to anxious residents and the families of those arrested, telling their stories. Editors were at work ensuring the highest standards of accuracy and thoroughness.

Operation Midway Blitz, which is ongoing, has been a crisis for Chicago, Illinois, and the nation. It is such crises that bring into high relief the vital civic role journalists play in a free and functional democracy. 

So many of our members have distinguished themselves covering this story, and we’re particularly proud that the Chicago Tribune was awarded the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting. The collection of work the prize committee cited in the award stands out for comprehensive reporting and commentary, exploring the human, legal and political implications of what feels to many to be a major watershed in American history. The Tribune’s reporting documented many cases of U.S. citizens and legal residents being arrested, and established that the vast majority of the 3,000 residents detained in Operation Midway Blitz were law-abiding, in contrast to the Trump administration’s claim to be targeting violent criminals. 

Tribune writers expertly analyzed the operation as spectacle, as a carefully coordinated propaganda blitz to project federal power against perceived internal adversaries. Their reporting also elevated the voices of protesters and activists organizing to resist that power.

It’s said that journalism is the first draft of history, and this body of work will be of longstanding importance to all who wish to understand this crisis in American democracy, as well as to repair the damage it has done.

We encourage all NewsGuild members to reread the work our guild siblings at the Tribune, the Sun-Times and the Reader have produced during this troubling interlude. They are stories of grave danger but also of hope. “Let the people know the facts and the country will be safe,” Lincoln said. That is the work of our free press, and the work of our guild.

photos courtesy of Sun-Times