Denver photojournalist on Pulitzer finalist nod: ‘I would be proud of this work regardless’

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May 8, 2026

Among those whose work the Pulitzer Prize board this week bestowed the nation’s highest journalism honors was Kevin Mohatt, a freelance photojournalist in Denver.

His photojournalism was part of a portfolio submitted on behalf of the Reuters news organization that took home a finalist nod on Monday in the Breaking News Photography category.

Judges said photos from the Reuters team were deserving for their “coverage of wide-ranging immigration enforcement actions across the United States, a portfolio distinguished by its breadth, power and immediacy.”

Shortly after last year’s inauguration, Republican President Donald Trump ordered widespread immigration crackdowns — and he specifically name-checked Aurora, Colorado, as a target.

Mohatt moved into gear.

“I wanted to show what the impact was on people,” he said over the phone this week. “On families, and on children.”

To do so, he spent several nights inside an apartment complex sleeping on couches in the homes of families who were anticipating federal ICE agents roaming the hallways and knocking on doors.

“It was exhausting work,” he said. Being able to be there took time. He cultivated the trust of a source who introduced him to others.

The point was to show through news photography how rhetoric from the nation’s top officials was at odds with the reality on the ground in communities.

“The message at the time was, ‘We’re just going after the criminals,’ which is what they said throughout the campaign,” Mohatt said. “And I wanted to show that that’s not what was really happening — that they were going after families, children, and specifically people that had documentation that are here legally that have work permits.”

From the homes of those who let him in, he documented panic and uncertainty: families loading up cars or hunkered down, waiting anxiously for roving patrols. He sometimes had to find creative ways to not show someone’s face or easily recognizable characteristics, like tattoos.

“People were terrified,” he said. Others told him they had done nothing wrong, so had nothing to hide.

The cutline of his Pulitzer-honored photo reads: “With his bag packed, a Venezuelan man peeks out the window of his apartment looking for any signs of federal agents after hearing reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be coming to detain immigrants for deportation in Aurora, Colorado, January 30, 2025.”

One evening, sure enough, it happened.

While Mohatt was inside one apartment, the tell-tale signs came in quick succession: crowded footsteps in the hallway, fists pounding on doors, and loud voices in English: “Police, please open the door.”

In early February, photos he took and audio he recorded from inside an apartment at a raid in Aurora made it into a Reuters special report, not included in the Pulitzer package, titled “Inside Trump’s immigration crackdown as net widens.”

Mohatt also photographed police in ICE vests walking a man in handcuffs from Cedar Run apartments in Denver, an image that earned plenty of play across the news wires that day.

Mohatt has lived in Colorado for two decades and has been freelancing for Reuters since around 2019. He also shoots for outlets ranging from Colorado Public Radio, Colorado Newsline, 5280 magazine, and the Denver Post to the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.

This comes from a portion of his personal website: “I became a journalist because I want to help tell the whole story.”

This week, Mohatt is on assignment in Alabama, where he’s covering the impacts of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

In recent days, plenty of accolades have come his way since his name and the word Pulitzer appeared in the same sentence.

He’s grateful for it, he said, adding, “I would be proud of this work regardless.”