Pinal County, AZ Sheriff and Congressional candidate Paul Babeu (R) stated that 500 criminal illegal immigrants had been released in his county alone on Friday’s “Risk & Reward with Deirdre Bolton” on the Fox Business Network.

Babeu said, “At the same time President Obama has put a target on the back of our heroes in law enforcement across the country, and yet they’re releasing these violent criminals, who are not even citizens, into our communities. They’ve released 500 right here in Pinal County, Arizona alone. These aren’t just regular criminals from America. These are criminals from foreign countries. 208, of the number you just gave, are convicted of murder. 900 are convicted of rape, sexual assault, child molestation, and they release them into our communities, and you don’t have to be the sheriff to figure out bad things are going to happen because of this. And the president has to be directly held accountable for these actions, and for the crimes that will occur because of this.”

Babeu added that there are “thousands” of people like Kate Steinle, just with different names.

He concluded, “It’s not the cops, it’s not ICE, it’s not our heroes in the Border Patrol, it’s President Obama, and this administration, by their policies. This is absolute lawlessness. With a wave of their hand, it’s the continuation of this executive action and orders, and through rule-making, they’re having the same impact as law. And they’re handcuffing all of us in law enforcement, across America. And this is where we need to put America, our families, our interests first for once, not illegals, not criminal illegals, from foreign countries. These people, that have been released, should be deported, never to return to America again. Yet, this president will never do so, and that’s why he should be fired, and all his cohorts, and should be replaced with Americans who are going to do their job, enforce the laws that are on the books, and put America first.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett