HARTFORD — Town officials on Thursday issued a draft “Welcoming Hartford Ordinance” that, if adopted, would establish clearer guidelines for when Hartford police and other town employees can or cannot communicate with federal authorities about a person’s immigration status.

The proposed ordinance was drafted, in part, off a “Welcoming Cities Ordinance” recently passed in Chicago under the same premise, Selectboard Chairman Simon Dennis said in an email on Friday.

“(Hartford’s) process workgroup went over it with a fine-tooth comb in the presence of counsel and at this point we believe we have improved upon the document than what was passed in Chicago,” wrote Dennis, who has been part of a working group on the matter.

Hartford’s proposed five-page ordinance says that no town department shall request or disclose information regarding a person’s citizenship or immigration status, unless it is required to do so by state law, federal regulation, court decision or another legal process.

In addition, no Hartford police officer could arrest or detain a person solely on the belief that he or she is in the United States illegally, even if that person has an immigration warrant or detainer out; make arrests on suspicion of unlawful entry; or assist federal immigration authorities with civil immigration enforcement, among many other restrictions in the proposed ordinance.

Members of the working group last week shifted their plans for how to best protect undocumented immigrants in town.

At the request of dozens of community members and immigration activists, the Selectboard had been discussing doing so through proposed amendments to the town’s existing Fair and Impartial Policing policy, but decided that creating an ordinance would be “the most effective means of accomplishing our goals,” Selectboard Chairman Simon Dennis, Selectboard member Jameson Davis, Town Manager Brannon Godfrey, Hartford Police Chief Phil Kasten and School Board Chairman Kevin Christie wrote in a letter to the community.

“There is a stronger, less legally problematic, and less controversial path forward involving the passage of an ordinance,” they wrote.

Dennis has said changing a policing policy might be “overreach” by the Selectboard and that it could be difficult to enforce, given federal law prohibiting bans by local communities that want to restrict contact between local police and federal immigration officials.

The topic has surfaced at three Selectboard meetings in town, beginning in early June. The American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont and Migrant Justice, a Burlington-based organization pushing for economic justice and human rights, drafted the proposed amendments to the town’s existing policing policy, which in part outlines communication surrounding immigration status. The Winooski Police Department last year adopted the same measures the group has proposed.

The Selectboard will hold a meeting on the proposed ordinance on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Hartford High School auditorium.

Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.