An elevated immigration policy stance approved Monday night by the Denver City Council boils down easily: Don’t ask about anyone’s status, don’t share it and don’t help federal authorities with enforcement.

But that simplicity carried serious meaning for dozens of people who filled the council’s chambers for a public hearing.

“I say that this policy cannot pass soon enough,” said Corrine Rivera-Fowler, who works with an advocacy group called Padres y Jóvenes Unidos. Since President Donald Trump took office Jan. 20, she said, “our community has been under constant attack” — most recently with Trump’s pardon of former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been held in contempt of court for inappropriately detaining undocumented immigrants.

The new ordinance is packed with many details, including several exceptions, but the message that rang through the council’s chambers during a hearing Monday night was clear: In an age when the Trump administration has intensified a crackdown on illegal immigration, Denver and its city leaders should stand publicly with the immigrants who face a constant risk of deportation.

The council approved the measure, called the Public Safety Enforcement Priorities Act, on a 10-0 vote.

“We’re not going to let anyone” enlist local police “to do their dirty work,” co-sponsor Paul López said — “not even a sitting U.S. president, not even a rogue agency.”

“If you have any business with us whatsoever,” he said, “we ask one thing — show us a warrant.”

Denver’s formalized stance is a mix of existing policies and practices that have been newly codified, along with a few new ones. Among those is a new rule barring the city’s jails from allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents access to secure areas for inmate interviews without a judicial warrant.

But the city, at the insistence of Mayor Michael Hancock, still will notify ICE of impending releases of immigrants of interest, although usually not with the 48-hour notice officials have requested — and with the addition of rights advisements given to affected inmates. That is among exceptions that make Denver’s ordinance more moderate than some so-called “sanctuary city” laws elsewhere.

The measure has drawn flak from some quarters — including from a state legislator who last week invited ICE to increase raids in Denver in a letter to Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Here is ovation greeting #DenverCouncil 10-0 vote to pass #immigration ordinance that is don't ask/don't share but still notify of releases. pic.twitter.com/v90cHqqneC — Jon Murray (@JonMurray) August 29, 2017

Rep. Dave Williams, a Colorado Springs Republican, also asked for a crackdown on the city in response to its “lawless politicians,” whom he portrayed as putting public safety at risk.

And late Monday, ICE issued a blistering response.

“By passing this irresponsible ordinance, the city of Denver’s leadership has codified a dangerous policy that deliberately obstructs our country’s lawful immigration system, protects serious criminal alien offenders, and undermines public safety,” said the statement from Jeffrey Lynch, the field office director for ICE’s Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations in Denver. (The rest of ICE’s statement is below.)

But council members defended the action.

“The reason there won’t be an injunction is because this council is acting consistent with the Constitution,” Councilman Rafael Espinoza said Monday night. “The same can’t be said of the Oval Office occupant.”

People who testified to the council cited concerns rooted in courthouse immigration arrests and crimes that may go unreported because of immigrants’ distrust of police.

“I’m here asking you to pass this bill so that people can call the police — they can call on them and help the police solve crimes and get to the bottom of crimes and be protected,” said Victor Galvan, an organizer at the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition who says he is a beneficiary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. “I hope that you see that a community that protects immigrants is also protecting everyone.”

Vic Ament, a Denver resident, said minutes later: “ICE is acting more like stormtroopers than law-enforcement agents. I urge you to proudly and quickly enact this ordinance to protect our neighbors and our friends.”

Social worker Margaret Brugger said that in her work she’s observed that the seemingly heightened risks facing immigrants without legal status have prompted recurring nightmares for their children.

López and council co-sponsor Robin Kniech credited immigrant advocates for keeping the pressure on Denver’s public officials all year to develop and pass the ordinance. Ultimately, Hancock and the council members resolved disagreements that had led to competing proposals.

“Along with this new ordinance,” Hancock said in a statement, “I look forward to signing a complementary executive order that will establish a legal defense fund, create a working group to track developments and policy around immigration, protect victims of crime regardless of their immigration status, assist children and families who become separated by the country’s broken immigration system, and continue coordinating actions for immigrants and refugees.”

Earlier in the evening, Julie Gonzales, the policy director for the Meyer Law Office, a Denver firm that handles immigration cases, said about the council’s ordinance: “This policy is going to draw a clear line in the sand between Denver employees and ICE.”

Some attendees Monday had spoken despite their undocumented status, but Gonzales said others were fearful of testifying. So she asked supporters of the ordinance to stand.

Nearly everyone in the packed chamber rose.

By the end of the hearing, no opponents stood up to speak.

ICE’s response to the ordinance

Lynch, the ICE field office director, issued this statement Monday night:

By passing this irresponsible ordinance, the City of Denver’s leadership has codified a dangerous policy that deliberately obstructs our country’s lawful immigration system, protects serious criminal alien offenders, and undermines public safety.

Unfortunately, with this established policy, we can expect to witness more tragedies like we saw in the recent case of Ever Valles, a known gang member and an immigration enforcement priority, who was released in December 2016 by Denver County without ICE being properly notified. He was later arrested and charged with murdering a 32-year-old man at a Denver light rail station just seven weeks after he was released from Denver County Jail.

Our goal is to build cooperative, respectful relationships with our law enforcement partners. While we will continue our efforts to work with Denver’s city government in support of public safety, it is disappointing that they have taken such an extreme step in the wrong direction.

Here is a summary of the ordinance approved by the council: