Should noncitizens be eligible to serve as Denver cops and firefighters? Voters will decide.

Denver voters this fall will decide if people who are not citizens but are legal U.S. residents should be eligible to work as city firefighters and police officers.

The City Council on Monday night voted unanimously to refer a measure to the Nov. 5 ballot that — if supported by a majority of voters — would remove U.S. citizenship as a pre-requisite for those jobs in the city charter.

Councilwoman Jamie Torres, one of the referral measure’s cosponsors, emphasized that the change would not clear the way for people residing in the country illegally to be first responders in the city.

Applicants would have to have legal status and work authorization. She mentioned DACA recipients — or young people who were brought to this country illegally by their parents and now have protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy — specifically as one group that could benefit from change.

A state law change in 2023 allows DACA recipients to possess firearms and become peace officers.

For Torres, getting rid of the citizenship requirement comes down to fairness.

“These are members of our community who have graduated from our high schools, maybe even our colleges, who are making lives for themselves here in Denver and who may want to consider this as their future job but haven’t been able to because our charter restricts it,” Torres said.

Both Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas and Denver Fire Chief Desmond Fulton wrote letters in support of referring the citizenship question to voters.

The Denver Sheriff Department already allows noncitizens to apply to work as deputies. That change, which did not require a vote to update the city’s charter, was made after a U.S. Department of Justice investigation in 2015 and 2016 concluded the department was discriminating against immigrants by requiring U.S. citizenship, according to a presentation that Torres and her co-sponsor Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval went through with members of the council’s Finance and Governance Committee last month.

Sandoval emphasized at that committee hearing that the policy change was not drafted with asylum-seekers who have poured into the city from the U.S. southern border over the last two years in mind.

The presentation highlighted research suggesting that law enforcement agencies nationwide are struggling with recruitment and retention. The Police Executive Research Forum completed a national survey in 2022 that found that new officer hiring was down 3.9% in 2021 compared to 2019. Retirements went up 23.9% over the same time period.

Denver is seeking to add 167 police officers to its ranks this year. Mayor Mike Johnston budgeted $8.2 million from the general fund with that goal in mind.

The item passed as part of the council’s consent agenda on Monday as did a referral measure that puts a question on the November ballot asking Denver if they want to allow rank-and-file city workers to form unions and engage in collective bargaining with city leadership. Police officers and firefighters already have collective bargaining rights in Denver.