Robust transcriptional responses are critical for defense against infection. However, unrestrained immune responses can cause negative impacts such as damaging inflammation and slowed development. Here we find that a class of transcriptional regulators previously associated with regulation of development inCaenorhabditis elegans, is also involved in immune responses. Specifically, through forward genetics, we find that loss oflin-15Bleads to constitutive expression of Intracellular Pathogen Response (IPR) genes.lin-15Bencodes a transcriptional repressor with a conserved THAP domain that is associated with the DRM chromatin remodeling complex that regulatesC. elegansdevelopment. We show thatlin-15Bmutants have increased resistance to natural intracellular pathogens, and the induction of IPR genes inlin-15Bmutants relies on the MES-4 histone methyltransferase. We extend our analyses to other DRM and NuRD chromatin remodeling factors, as well as SUMOylation histone modifiers, showing that a broad range of chromatin-related factors can repress IPR gene expression. Altogether these findings suggest that conserved chromatin regulators may facilitate development in part by repressing damaging immune responses against intracellular pathogens.