Of all the bizarre ideas Toronto council gets into its head, putting pressure on Toronto police not to report illegal migrants to federal immigration authorities is one of the dumbest.

It’s reckless. It’s irresponsible. It’s potentially dangerous.

One of the most important methods of insuring public safety is that municipal, provincial and federal authorities co-operate with one another to protect Canadians.

If Toronto police — as council wants — stop co-operating with federal authorities on immigration issues, what makes them think the reverse won’t happen, that federal authorities won’t co-operate with them?

All of this madness stems from Toronto’s so-called “sanctuary city” policy passed in 2013, which instructs city staff not to report illegal migrants to federal authorities if they become aware of their status.

This so-called “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy also requires them to provide city services to illegal migrants, meaning all property taxpayers are picking up the costs.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” is a bad enough policy when it applies to municipal civil servants.

But when council tries to impose the “don’t tell” aspect of this policy on the police — who are already told not to ask people about their immigration status — it’s utter political insanity.

Police Chief Mark Saunders has already pointed out these realities to council.

At last week’s meeting of the Toronto police services board, the issue was deferred, which simply means it’s all going to rear its head again in a couple of months.

It’s estimated there are anywhere from 200,000 to 500,000 illegal migrants in Canada — most of them undocumented workers — and that half of them are in Toronto, where many work in the construction and hospitality industries.

Included in those numbers are 44,000 failed refugee claimants, whom the Canada Border Services Agency has lost track of after they failed to comply with removal orders.

Most of these people aren’t violent criminals or terrorists, but some are. Some are war criminals.

Removing them from Canada is the responsibility of the federal government and to do it properly, there has to be co-operation with municipal police forces.

This is what council is trying to disrupt because it’s bought into the absurd idea from refugee advocates that the Toronto police shouldn’t be helping the feds do their “dirty work”.

When did enforcing the law become “dirty work”?

Is it “dirty work” when city council demands people obey the law by paying their taxes, or get a building permit before building or renovating a home?

What city council is really doing through its sanctuary city policy is encouraging disrespect for all laws.

If Toronto police are going to turn a blind eye to immigration fraud, then why not to tax fraud or child pornography as well?

This is the insane place to where the city’s “sanctuary city” policy leads when you apply it to the police.