According to acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Matthew Albence, New York City’s radically left-wing “sanctuary city” policies just killed a woman — and unless these policies are reversed, more American men, women, and children will wind up paying the price.

That woman, 92-year-old Queens resident Maria Fuertes, was allegedly raped and killed earlier this month by Reeaz Khan, an illegal alien who was arrested in November for allegedly beating up his father but then released right back onto the streets.

“ICE officials said that, at the time [of Khan’s November arrest], the city didn’t cooperate with a detainer request to hand Mr. Khan over to their custody so he could be deported,” The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Albence provided confirmation during a press conference Friday.

Listen to some of what he said below:

“Make no mistake. It is this city’s sanctuary policies that are the sole reason this criminal was allowed to roam the streets freely and end an innocent woman’s life,” he said.

“All you need to do is call us before you release them. A phone call, one simple phone call, and Maria Fuertes would be alive today. These are preventable crimes people, and most importantly preventable victims.”

Albence added that of the 7,526 “detainers” that have been rejected by NYC officials, roughly 200 were for suspected murderers.

He also put out a fugitives list containing “suspected illegal immigrants from Nigeria, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guinea, Spain, and El Salvador” who’ve been released despite being arrested for “assault in the first, second and third degrees, attempted robbery, criminal possession of a weapon, gang assaults and other violent offenses,” according to Fox News.

He further put out a list of illegal aliens currently in custody but slated to “be released into New York communities” any day now after serving their sentences for crimes such as rape, murder and sexual assault against a child.

Just a day before the presser, ICE officials in New York were fortunate enough to find and arrest an illegal alien who’d originally been arrested for sexually assaulting a minor two summers ago but was then released back onto the streets by local authorities.

ICE arrests Colombian national charged with sexual assault of a minor, released from custody with an active detainer https://t.co/vF7O4gE8RY pic.twitter.com/2J4B2y0HAn — ICE (@ICEgov) January 17, 2020

“As much as I like New York City, I hate that I’m here right now. As a 25-year law enforcement professional, it’s unbelievable that I have to come here and plead with the city of New York to cooperate with us to help keep the city safe,” Albence added during Friday’s presser.

“Those who politicize this issue want you to believe that you have to choose between being an immigrant-friendly city and one that cooperates with ICE. Again that is simply false. The only immigrants protected by such policies are those committing violence and dangerous offenses, often in the same communities these politicians are purporting to protect.”

Plus, a statement by ICE notes, refusal to cooperate with ICE typically results in increased — not decreased — law enforcement efforts.

“Local jurisdictions that choose to not cooperate with ICE are likely to see an increase in ICE enforcement activity, as ICE the agency has no choice but to conduct more at-large arrest operations,” the agency notes.

“A consequence of ICE being forced to make more arrests on the streets is the agency is likely to encounter other unlawfully present foreign nationals that wouldn’t have been encountered had we been allowed to take custody of a criminal target within the confines of a local jail.”

The same thing happened in North Carolina last year. After several sheriffs began refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, ICE officials were forced to conduct raids across the whole state.

The raids led to the arrest of roughly 200 illegal aliens but also provoked backlash from the same pro-illegal-alien sheriffs who’d refused to work with ICE.

ICE clashes with uncooperative North Carolina sheriffs. Officials tell them to brace for more raids. https://t.co/cxfnLagXUr pic.twitter.com/Wa6LOSWjcv — Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) February 9, 2019

According to Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead, ICE officials were the bad guys for allegedly making illegal aliens “afraid of law enforcement” …

“The recent actions of ICE agents are making persons in our community afraid of law enforcement,” he said in a statement. “The decision I made to not honor ICE detainers was in part to help all of Durham’s people feel safe and encourage our residents to feel like they can trust my deputies – and law enforcement in general.”

Even to this day, it’s not clear why illegal aliens shouldn’t be afraid of law enforcement, given as they’ve violated America’s federal immigration laws.

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has displayed the same attitude, using every opportunity in the book to frame him and his illegal alien constituents as the good guys and America’s federal immigration authorities as the bad guys.

I believe in the rule of law. But we have to acknowledge that we are dealing with a lawless president who’s turned ICE into a political operation to terrorize our immigrant communities. It must stop and we must #AbolishICE. https://t.co/F0YunSCx6R — Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) July 12, 2019

Meanwhile, he’s shown zero concern for the bonafide American citizens throughout his city and nation who’ve been harassed, assaulted, raped or even killed by an illegal alien.

Watch Friday’s full presser below: