During an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump made the comment while criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris on border security. Trump accused her of “allowing people to come through an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers.”

“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. They had 425,000 people come into our country that shouldn’t be here, that are criminals,” Trump said.

His claim distorts data released last month by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Congress. 

Trump and his allies have said the data show that the Biden administration has let free more than 13,000 undocumented immigrants with homicide convictions. ICE did tell Congress there are more than 13,000 illegal immigrants who have been convicted of homicide who the organization is not holding, but the figures are more complex. 

ICE’s figures don’t include convicts who may be in state and local custody. Data does show there are 425,000 total illegal immigrants in the country who have criminal convictions, but that total includes numbers going back decades, including immigrants who crossed the border during Trump’s time in the White House.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denounced Trump’s comments about “bad genes ” during Monday’s daily press briefing.

“That type of language is hateful, it’s disgusting, it’s inappropriate and has no place in our country,” Jean-Pierre said.

“It is important to bring people together, and tearing people apart, tearing communities apart, is dangerous,” she added.

“This president, this vice president,  we’re going to continue to forcefully reject this kind of vile, disturbing, hateful, hateful speech. It has no place — no place — in the country,” Jean-Pierre continued.

Trump’s “bad genes” comment is the latest in his line of questioning about the biological makeup of immigrants. Since his first presidential campaign began in 2015, Trump has made a number of comments regarding immigrants’ ethnicity. 

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Trump said in a 2015 campaign speech. “They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Last year, Trump said undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” He also recently voiced his support for removing Haitian immigrants, who are legally in the country under “temporary protected status,” from Springfield, Ohio.

He has also previously mentioned people’s genes, telling a predominantly white crowd in Minnesota that they had “good genes” during his 2020 run for reelection.

“You have good genes, you know that, right?” Trump said. “You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it? Don’t you believe that? The racehorse theory — do you think we’re so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.”

In a recent campaign event in South Carolina, Harris brought up Trump’s “poisoning the blood” comment. 

“For years, the former president has stoked the fires of hate and bigotry and racism and xenophobia for his own power and political gain,” Harris said.

The Washington Examiner reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.