Ballot Measure 2T: Allowing hiring of qualified non-citizens for police and fire jobs

Denver voters will decide if the city should remove its citizenship requirement for police and fire department jobs.

Currently, the city can only hire U.S. citizens for those jobs, due to restrictions in the city charter.

If voters approve Measure 2T, non-citizens with certain work and residency qualifications can apply for roles in those departments. Applicants would still need to meet hiring standards that apply to all potential applicants for police and fire departments, including age and education requirements, physical and mental tests and background checks.

The change would apply to people with valid U.S. work authorization, people with legal permanent residency and people with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status who arrived in the U.S as children. It would not allow new immigrants without legal documentation and work authorization to apply.

The referred question would bring Denver in line with federal law, which prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of national origin and citizenship status as long as applicants have proper work authorization. 

In 2016, the Denver Sheriff’s Department settled a lawsuit for $10,000 after the U.S. Justice Department found the department required applicants to be U.S. citizens to apply—a requirement that has since been lifted for that agency. Other neighboring cities, including Aurora, already allow qualified non-citizens to work in police and fire departments.

Here’s the language you’ll see on your ballot:

“Shall the Charter of the City and County of Denver be amended to remove the 1 requirement that police officers and fire fighters be United States Citizens?”

How would it work?

If the ordinance passes, it would change the city charter, which means any additional changes would have to go before voters again in the future. It would take effect as soon as the civil service commission updates its rules, which would likely happen soon afterward. Then, immigrants with proper authorization will be able to apply for police and fire department jobs.

If the referred question fails, residents who are not U.S. citizens would continue to be barred from applying for police and fire department jobs. Denver could be vulnerable to lawsuits because the city’s current policies requiring citizenship are in conflict with federal law.

Who’s for it?

City council member Jamie Torres and council president Amanda Sandoval sponsored the referred question, which passed council unanimously. They are posing the question to voters to bring the city in line with federal law, and to open up employment opportunities to people who are otherwise qualified to work in police and fire departments but are currently barred. 

Denver’s police and fire departments have also suffered from understaffing and struggled to fill recruiting classes in recent years, while turning away interested applicants who lack U.S. citizenship.

“We absolutely are standing right in the face of employment discrimination, and I don’t want to see that in our charter, in any of our code, and for us to just look like we can ignore it until the Department of Justice comes knocking at our door,” Torres said before the city council vote in July. “I think it’s responsible for us to make sure that we lift that barrier and that issue proactively. And that I think is one thing, but the other is it’s the right thing to do.”

The ordinance has received letters of support from many city groups and agencies including the Fire Department Chief Desmond Fulton, Police Chief Ron Thomas, the Denver Latino Commission, the Denver Immigrant and Refugee Commission and the Civil Service Commission, the independent board that oversees police and fire department hiring. The nonprofit Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition also wrote a letter of support. 

As of Sept. 27, there had been no money raised or spent in support of the ordinance.

Who’s against it?

There is no organized opposition to the ordinance. As of Sept. 27, there had been no money raised or spent in opposition to the ordinance.

But when city council first proposed the charter change, Torres said she heard misinformation spreading that the city was pushing for the change to allow recently arrived immigrants, many of whom are undocumented and do not yet have work authorization, to work in the police and fire departments.

Some national right-wing news outlets, including The Washington Times, have written articles about efforts in Colorado and other states suggesting changes like this would let cities hire “illegal immigrants.” This is not the case; the bill requires proper residency status and work authorization.

“It isn’t for undocumented residents,” Torres said in July. “I think people needed to be reminded that we still have rules and laws and vetting in place for any job, not just our safety jobs.”

In February, the Denver Gazette Editorial Board published a piece opposing the ballot measure, arguing that because some immigrants who currently have proper work authorization and residency had initially entered the country illegally, they are not qualified to enforce the law. Instead, those residents should have to become U.S. citizens first, the article argued.

“No doubt, some of them have the makings of good cops or firefighters,” the Editorial Board wrote. “But particularly when it comes to police work, it flouts the whole premise of wearing a badge if the cop behind it is in Colorado only because he or she broke the law in the first place.”

Previous Denverite coverage of Ballot Measure 2T

Denver voters will decide if qualified non-citizens can apply for police and fire jobs

Should Denver remove its citizenship requirement for police and fire jobs? Voters might decide in the fall