President Barack Obama’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency released nearly 20,000 criminal illegals – including rapists, sex offenders, and even around 200 murderers – back onto U.S. streets after their jail sentences ended in 2015, according to new reports.

The 19,723 released illegals were not deported.

As reported by Paul Bedard at the Washington Examiner, the number includes “208 convicted of murder, over 900 convicted of sex crimes and 12,307 of drunk driving.” The criminals had 64,197 convictions among them, representing a whopping 8,234 violent crimes.

The nearly 20,000 criminals were released in virtually every state and territory of America, ICE statistics show.

The announcement comes on the heels of several years of Obama administration attempts to spin its statistics in order to claim that fewer criminal illegals are being detained and deported in order to ease criticism from illegal alien advocate groups.

ICE has also tried to claim it is cracking down on illegals skipping court dates, but in fact the agency has simply changed its policy and cut down on issuing court appearances in the first place to make it seem as if fewer of those appearances are being ignored.

On Thursday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is held a hearing on this issue and has said on its website that the Obama administration’s practice of releasing dangerous criminals places local communities at risk.

“Each year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement releases tens of thousands of criminal aliens eligible for deportation,” the Republican-led committee said. “After release, many go on to commit additional crimes. With new restrictions on immigration enforcement through the president’s executive actions, only narrow classes of removable aliens are priorities for arrest, questioning, detention, or removal. Therefore, millions of removable aliens will be able to remain in the country.”

Deportations of illegals have plummeted in the last few years as Obama continues to slow the wheels of the agency.

“This is a stunning free fall in enforcement activity, not just deportations but arrests too,” Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Washington Times last year. “It turns out that even criminal arrests and deportations have dropped, including those of the ‘worst of the worst’ Level 1 felons, and the huge numbers of criminal releases continues.”

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump has made the deportation of illegal aliens a key part of his campaign, and has repeatedly insisted he’d look to deport up to 11 million. The real estate mogul has also criticized those who say his plan to do so would clog immigration courts with cases that would take years to clear.

“They say you have to go through a huge legal process. You don’t. They’re illegal. If somebody walks in, they don’t bring them to court, they send them back,” Trump told Business Insider late last year.

“Well these people came in, and they came in a year ago. No different,” Trump added. “If somebody walks from Mexico or wherever they come from, and they come into the country, security guards bring ’em back. You don’t go through 10 years of courts and stuff. Well, this is no different.”

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.