In the face of a federal immigration crackdown, Denver is set to change its sentencing ordinance to help some immigrants avoid deportation.

City officials plan to rewrite penalties for criminal violations, enact a local hate-crimes law and try out other programs as part of a move to reassure immigrants afraid of testifying in court or fearful of the risk petty offenses might pose.

A proposed ordinance submitted by Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration to the City Council would split misdemeanors and other violations covered by ordinance into three categories in a broad sentencing-reform move. All currently are subject to a uniform potential penalty of up to a year in jail and a $999 fine, but after the change, only a half dozen of the most serious crimes would remain so.

In rolling out the sentencing changes, Hancock made clear that his administration was acting on a long-standing goal of doing the city’s part to reform the criminal-justice system so that it is more equitable, and less one-size-fits-all.

But the timing is intended to address increasing anxiety among immigrants.

The idea, spurred by advocates for immigrants, is simple: Conviction of some crimes that carry a potential penalty of at least a year in jail can put an immigrant on the radar for deportation. That’s true whether the immigrants charged with violations are in the country legally, with student visas or green cards, or illegally.

By making sure that most of its ordinance violations carry penalties of less than a year — a sentence rarely given for them anyway — the city could help immigrants who commit petty offenses lay low.

If the council approves the changes, the most serious offenses — including repeat domestic violence offenses and assaults that cause injury or target officers — would retain the potential one-year jail sentence.

“The goal is that we ensure people are receiving appropriate punishment for their crime — and that we are not unnecessarily flagging people for deportation or punishing the homeless for low-level offenses,” Hancock said in an interview.

Some immigrant advocates say the proposed restructuring doesn’t go far enough, suggesting it would be smarter to make even the top category of offenses subject to a maximum 364 days in jail to help keep offenders off the federal radar.

That essentially would remove Denver from the “business of immigration enforcement,” said Julie Gonzales, the policy director for the Meyer Law Office, a Denver firm that specializes in immigration cases.

But Hancock said the reforms and new hate-crime enhancement were meant to put both low-level offenders at ease, while trying to “protect the community from violent offenders and hateful actions” — and from those who commit the more serious offenses in the new top category.

The proposed changes, to be considered by a City Council committee next week, would affect a small proportion of crimes since more serious offenses, including felonies, are covered by state law and prosecuted in district court.

Denver’s changes come as multiple states and cities tackle sentencing reform to reduce incarceration rates, especially among minorities. In Denver, the proposed sentencing changes could ease pressure somewhat on the city’s increasingly crowded jails, though that will depend on how they affect judges’ decisions.

The city would create three tiers for criminal ordinance violations:

Top level: Still subject to up to a year in jail and the maximum fine, the category includes sexually motivated offenses, repeat domestic abusers and crimes against at-risk people, such as the elderly. A proposed hate-crimes sentencing enhancement would boost lower-category offenses, such as graffiti or an assault that is motivated by race, religion, sexual orientation, to the top level.

Middle level: Crimes including shoplifting, trespassing, the first or second instance of domestic violence, and simple assault would be newly eligible for a maximum 300 days in jail and $999 fine.

Bottom level: Petty offenses, such as public urination, curfew violations and unauthorized camping — sometimes used against the homeless — would merit less-severe maximum jail time, up to 60 days and a $100 fine in some cases.

Though the sentencing reform has other motivations, the timing is geared toward helping immigrants after city officials have faced pressure.

Officials consulted with advocates

City officials are reacting to months of angst within Denver’s immigrant community over President Donald Trump’s promised crackdown on illegal immigration.

Federal immigration authorities have stepped up deportation proceedings, often based on criminal histories but increasingly targeting immigrants with no criminal records.

On Wednesday, a Mexican man who lived in the basement of a Denver church seeking sanctuary from deportation for nine months until July 2015 was arrested by federal agents. Arturo Hernandez Garcia has never been convicted of a crime, and his supporters believe there are political motivations behind his arrest.

Sightings of plain-clothes agents in the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse’s hallways have made at least a handful of domestic violence victims and crime witnesses — and possibly more — reluctant to show up to court or aid prosecutions, city officials say.

The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency long has relied on laws that allow it to seek automatic deportation based on certain offenses in a person’s criminal background. Aside from major crimes, the guideline is that an offense that carries a potential penalty of a year or more and which ICE decides to classify as an “aggravated felony” meets the threshold.

But ICE in recent years often has erred in low-level offenders’ favor, putting them at ease.

“The fear right now is that all that discretion has now gone out the window,” Gonzales said.

She said city officials have been slow to react to immigrants’ concerns, only taking the threat of ICE agents showing up to the courthouse seriously once the Meyer firm filmed the agents and released the video in February.

This month, Hancock was joined by City Council members, District Attorney Beth McCann, the county court’s presiding judge, the Denver school superintendent and others in signing a still-unanswered letter to an ICE official. It asked that ICE agents not target the courthouse or schools for immigration arrests.

City officials said the idea of reducing the maximum penalty for most municipal offenses below 365 days came out of discussions with immigrant rights’ advocates, including the Meyer firm.

Pilot tries mail-in pleas for traffic court

But Hancock, City Attorney Kristin Bronson and Police Chief Robert White said the new efforts build on others they have taken for months to reach out to immigrant groups and make clear that police officers will not be deputized as ICE agents.

One simple change made a few weeks ago, Bronson said, was to allow Colorado residents with traffic violations in Denver to send in a plea to the offense via mail, rather than requiring them to show up in court. That traffic court pilot program could expand to some other courts if successful, she said.

The thinking is that immigrants who receive traffic tickets or other driving-related citations may be reluctant to visit court to contest a violation or admit a driving offense.

But blowing a court date can result in a judge issuing an arrest warrant for failing to appear — something that could haunt an immigrant even more down the line.

In another move meant to discourage fear of court, victim advocates have waited with victims who are set to testify in the Rose Andom Center, a service center for people experiencing domestic violence, instead of in the courthouse.

The sentencing reform proposal is seen as a positive step by Kyle Huelsman, the policy manager for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition.

“Creating automatic deportation as punishment is not a punishment we want to endorse,” he said.

But his group had asked city officials for sentencing reform as part of a request to adopt a broader sanctuary policy, which Denver hasn’t done. The coalition echoed Gonzales’ call to impose a maximum penalty of 364 days in jail for all ordinance violations, rather than leaving some with a one-year penalty.

Gonzales added that more broadly, Hancock’s proposal still appears to “look more toward punishment than rehabilitation” for municipal offenses, since jail is still held out as an option for criminal violations.

Under pressure from Trump administration

Hancock and Bronson said they were confident Denver was within its right to change the sentencing structure. State law sets a maximum one-year penalty for local offenses but allows each jurisdiction to fine-tune the bounds.

Denver and other cities have been facing pressure on immigration from the Trump administration over policies that could lead them to be deemed “sanctuary cities,” and risk the loss of some federal funding, if they resist aiding in immigration enforcement. On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked part of Trump’s sanctuary city executive order.

At the same time, advocates for immigrants have pressured Hancock and other mayors across the country to do what they can to thwart Trump’s actions.

Hancock says the sentencing proposal marks a good step forward.

“We’ve already said and reaffirmed very clearly that we will not let our local law enforcement officers to become ICE agents in the streets,” Hancock said. “When they have legitimate federal warrants, we will have effective lines of communication with them so that we can get those violent criminals off the street.”

But the city, while giving ICE notice about impending releases of immigrants from jail upon request, is among many that have declined to hold inmates for ICE if they otherwise are eligible for release.

What’s next

The Denver City Council is set to consider the sentencing proposal to restructure sentencing and to add a hate-crimes enhancement at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in Room 391 of the City and County Building. The committee will allow some public comment.

If the committee advances the proposal, it would be eligible for a final vote as soon as May 22. The changes would take effect June 1.