Activist groups have called on outgoing President Obama to free thousands of illegal aliens in the U.S. trying to claim asylum before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

There are some 4,000 illegal aliens, many of them children, who flocked to the U.S. after leaving Central America, now waiting in detention facilities in Texas and Pennsylvania, said one activist group. Another pro-illegal alien activist group said there are “a record” 41,000 illegals in detention facilities.

The 2016 influx of illegal aliens from Central America exceeded 117,000 by Oct. 1, hitting a new record, as Breitbart News reported earlier. One immigration officer told Breitbart News that the latest surge “is the worst we’ve ever seen,” with illegal aliens released “into the wind never to be seen by us again.”

“Immigration advocates want the president to either end the practice of detaining families altogether, as they’ve been requesting for years, or direct Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to release families with a notice to appear before a judge on their own recognizance,” Bloomberg News reports. Of course, requesting illegal aliens to appear before an immigration judge is as good as giving them a free pass to enter the U.S.: Over 90 percent of illegal alien families and unaccompanied alien children (UACs) skip their removal hearings.

Illegal aliens near the U.S.-Mexico border are also heading to sanctuary cities such as riot-ravaged Baltimore and New York City in order to evade immigration authorities, another activist said, adding, “There’s literally not enough commercial bus space to get the people out. They’re all terrified.”

Obama’s executive amnesty for the some 1.4 million illegal aliens under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) may be repealed the day Trump assumes the presidency, and they could be the first facing deportation. As Breitbart News previously reported, the incoming administration will have their identities, addresses, and their admission that they entered the country illegally.

As Trump declared in a major policy speech in Phoenix, Arizona in August, there will be “zero tolerance” for illegal immigration under his administration. “Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation – that is what it means to have laws and to have a country,” Trump said.

Trump’s plan to enforce immigration law has widespread support from Americans with a diversity of backgrounds. One exit poll found 58 percent of Hispanic voters support Trump’s immigration policies. Another poll found 54 percent of voters want to see annual immigration halved or reduced to zero, including 52 percent of Hispanic voters. Another 58 percent believe illegal aliens should not be permitted to stay in the country, even if they do not commit a “serious crime,” while 54 percent said the U.S. does not do enough to enforce immigration laws already on the books.