City Council has taken a step that allows undocumented residents to have open access to city services without fear of being turned in to Immigration authorities.

On Thursday, councillors voted to order staffers to invesitgate ways to build such a policy.

Similar rules are in place in American cities like New York City and Chicago but Toronto is the first city in Canada to have a so-called 'sanctuary' policy.

Immigration lawyer Guidy Mamman tells NEWSTALK 1010's Friendy Fire that the vast majority of Toronto's estimated 200,000 undocumented residents are hard-working and productive.

"The idea of taking out a population like that, putting them on planes and sending them out of the country and expecting this city to continue to function as if nothing happened is a fantasy," he says.

Current Federal law states that undocumented migrants are subject to detention or deportation if they are discovered.