More than 2,000 illegal immigrants have been freed from sanctuary cities’ police departments in fiscal year 2016 instead of being handed over to federal immigration officials.

In a year-end report from the Department of Homeland Security, nearly 279 sanctuary cities were detailed responsible for the release of illegal immigrants back onto the streets as the municipalities continue to refuse adherence to federal immigration law, according to the Washington Times.

Federal immigration officials reported that they are on track to surpass the 2016 record of freed illegal immigrants in the first two months of FY2017.

The report also mentions how border agents are seeing a surge of migration most recently, while only 114,000 illegal immigrants were actually captured by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency last year.

As the Washington Times notes, those caught by ICE represent a mere one percent of the over 11 million illegal immigrants who are documented to be living in the country.

“More than 90 percent of those ICE apprehended had criminal convictions, had gang ties, were deemed national security risks, were new illegal arrivals or were defying active orders of deportation,” the Washington Times noted.

The challenge for President-Elect Donald Trump to rid the county of sanctuary cities, which make it impossible to deport illegal immigrants being held in police custody, the fight will not be as tough as it once could have been.

Back in Fiscal Year 2015, as the Washington Times reports, there were 395 sanctuary cities. During that time, those municipalities released a total of 8,546 back into the public.

John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.