"How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers," Trump said on Monday in an interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, while discussing the immigration policies of his Democratic opponent in the November 5 election, Vice President Kamala Harris.
"Many of them murdered far more than one person, and they're now happily living in the United States. You know, now a murderer, I believe this, it's in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now."
US Vice President Kamala Harris during a visit to the US-Mexico border in September. (AP PHOTO)
Trump appeared to be referring to a letter from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Republican Representative Tony Gonzales, released in September which showed 13,099 people have been convicted of homicide who are on ICE's "non-detained docket". That docket includes various types of immigrants who entered the country legally and illegally.
Many people in this category are not in custody of immigration authorities because they are in state or federal prison. In some cases, the crimes they are convicted of happened years or decades ago.
In a statement, the Trump campaign defended his comments, saying he was speaking only about murderers, not immigrants.
"President Trump was clearly referring to murderers, not migrants," said Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt.Â
"It's pretty disgusting the media is always so quick to defend murderers, rapists, and illegal criminals if it means writing a bad headline about President Trump."
The former president has frequently attacked migrants on the campaign trail, particularly those who have been implicated in crimes. At times, he has used dehumanising language, and he has increasingly turned to extremely graphic depictions of the crimes.
While there is little data about the immigration status of criminals, academic researchers say immigrants in the country illegally do not commit crimes more often than US-born or naturalised Americans.
The White House condemned Trump's remarks.
"That type of language is hateful, it's disgusting, it's inappropriate and it has no place in our country," White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said.
