More than 500 criminal illegal aliens were released back onto the streets of North Carolina this fiscal year by sanctuary cities, according to federal immigration officials.

Newly released data by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency reveals the degree to which sanctuary cities and counties in North Carolina are protecting criminal illegal aliens from arrest and deportation.

“Across North Carolina, local authorities refused to honor more than 500 detainers for foreign nationals during Fiscal Year 2019,” ICE officials wrote in a statement. “All of these detainer refusals are of persons criminally arrested by a law enforcement agency for a criminal offense beyond their violation of federal immigration law.”

As Breitbart News reported, up to 80 percent of criminal illegal aliens freed back into American communities by sanctuary jurisdictions go on to commit more crimes, an ICE official confirmed in congressional testimony.

“When aliens walk out the front of the jail that could have been handed over to [ICE] for removal proceedings, they have the opportunity to commit additional crimes,” ICE official Timothy Robbins said. “What we’ve seen, and depending on the report you look at, anywhere from 40 to 80 percent of those who have committed crimes will re-offend.”

Data: 80 Percent of Illegal Aliens Freed by Sanctuary Cities Commit More Crimeshttps://t.co/UYd8K4mkZh — John Binder 👽 (@JxhnBinder) October 25, 2019

In one of the most recent cases, sanctuary officials in Buncombe County, North Carolina released a convicted illegal alien child molester from prison instead of handing him over to ICE for deportation.

North Carolina, particularly, suffers from a disproportionately high rate of sex crimes committed by illegal aliens.

A July report by the Epoch Times noted research by North Carolinians For Immigration Reform and Enforcement (NCFIRE), which stated that in the last one and a half years, more than 330 illegal aliens have been charged with nearly 1,200 child sex crimes in North Carolina. Over the last four and a half years, the NCFIRE’s research states that an average of 34 illegal aliens in North Carolina are charged every month with child sex crimes.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.