After multiple delays, the Aurora City Council voted down a pair of immigration protection ordinances Monday night, choosing to decline both ordinances in a 5-6 vote.

The ordinances, sponsored by Council members Crystal Murillo and Alison Coombs, would have banned Aurora police from working with federal immigration authorities and established a legal defense fund for immigrants facing deportation and other court proceedings.

Both ordinances were tied at 5-5 after being voted on by council members. Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman broke the ties, voting in opposition of each ordinance.

“This is an ordinance we proposed for the purpose of keeping families together and keeping our community safe,” Coombs said. “Communities where people don’t fear deportation for reporting crimes are safer communities.”

Coombs and other supporters of the ordinances argued that they would make the city safer by allowing immigrant residents to report crimes to the police without fear of deportation.

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Many pointed to undocumented victims of domestic violence who are too afraid to go to the police for help as targets of the ordinance.

In addition to preventing police from working with federal immigration authorities, the ordinance would have also banned the authorities from entering city buildings and prohibited Aurora employees from using city funds or facilities to cooperate with enforcement actions.

“Cities with immigrant protections like these see a reduction in deportations without seeing a reduction in deportations of violent offenders and without seeing any increase in crime,” Coombs said. “To argue otherwise is a prejudice that doesn’t acknowledge existing data.”

Regarding the immigrant legal defense fund, Council member Juan Marcano said it would level the playing field as immigration hearings are some of the only in which attorneys are not provided to those who can’t afford them.

“(The ordinances) are trying to bend that arc of history towards justice. It is in Aurora’s best interest to do this,” Marcano said, adding that 20% of Aurora’s population is foreign-born.

In a tearful testimony, Marcano detailed discrimination and profiling he and his family have experienced in the U.S. as Puerto Ricans and American citizens.

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“We need to do better,” Marcano said. “I am begging you guys, do better.”

Dozens of community members called to voice their opinions on the ordinances, with nearly three-quarters of those who called expressing support.

Several callers identified themselves as immigrants living in fear of deportation and children of immigrants whose parents were deported when they could not afford an attorney.

Of the five council members and the mayor who voted against the ordinances, only one spoke during the meeting.

“We’re putting government on top of government,” said Council member Angela Lawson, arguing that the ordinances are unnecessary and would cost too much money.

In previous study sessions, opponents to the ordinances argued that they didn’t want taxpayer dollars to go toward the defense fund and said limiting cooperation between police and federal immigration authorities could put police in difficult positions.