More than 170 legal and illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes will be deported, Virginia Attorney General Robert McDonnell said Wednesday.

“I trust all Virginians agree that there is no place in Virginia for criminal alien sex offenders,” McDonnell said. “We must take every possible step to remove these dangerous criminals from our commonwealth and nation.”

The Virginia State Police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials ran a list of foreign-born Virginia sex offenders through two databases, finding 171 still living in the state who should be deported.

More than half of the 36 convicted sex offenders who had been released from jail were living in Northern Virginia, including seven in Alexandria, four in Manassas, three in Woodbridge, two in Burke, and one each in Arlington, Dumfries, Fairfax, Lorton and Sterling. The rest are still serving time in prisons or jails before deportation.

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Many of the offenders were legal U.S. permanent residents whose crimes violated the terms of their residency and subjected them to deportation, said ICE Virginia Director Bill Reid. While green-card holders who commit such crimes should face removal, Reid said that wasn’t happening in many of the cases.

The group included immigrants from 21 countries including Argentina, Cuba, El Salvador, Egypt, Germany, Honduras, Jamaica, India, Laos, Mexico, Scotland and Turkey.

After the nine-month investigation, nearly half of the 527 foreign-born sex offenders reviewed, or 255, meet the criteria for deportation, including 84 who had left the country or had been deported. Their crimes included rape, lewd and lascivious acts with a 4-year-old and illegal Internet chats with young teens.

“This is the most comprehensive assessment we’ve had of dangerous sex offenders to determine their status,” McDonnell said.