President Donald Trump again highlighted violence in Chicago on Wednesday, asserting that many of the city's problems are caused by gang members — "many of whom are not even legally in our country."

Trump, addressing a conference of police chiefs and sheriffs, urged them to "turn in" bad actors to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

"I want you to turn in the bad ones," Trump said. "Call Secretary Kelly's representatives and we'll get them out of our country and bring them back to where they came from and we'll do it fast. You have to call the federal government, Homeland Security, because so much of the problems — you look at Chicago and you look at other places. So many of the problems are caused by gang members, many of whom are not even legally in our country."

Trump offered no evidence for his claim that gang members in the country illegally are behind much of the violence.

The president was addressing the winter conference of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, whose members are police chiefs and sheriffs from large cities in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.

In his speech, Trump also said: "In Chicago, more than 4,000 people were shot last year alone, and the rate so far this year has been even higher. What is going on in Chicago?"

According to the Tribune's database, shootings are up about 8 percent this year, so far but homicides are down about 20 percent.

"We cannot allow this to continue," Trump said. "We've allowed too many young lives to be claimed — and ... you see that all over — claimed by gangs and too many neighborhoods to be crippled by violence and fear. Sixty percent of murder victims under the age of 22 are African-American.

Fact check: Trump overstates national murder rate Tribune news services

President Donald Trump's dark view of violent crime in America rests largely on a bogus claim: that the murder rate is higher than it's been in nearly half a century. Actually, the murder rate is down sharply in that time, despite a recent spike.

On Tuesday, he told a meeting of sheriffs: "The...

President Donald Trump's dark view of violent crime in America rests largely on a bogus claim: that the murder rate is higher than it's been in nearly half a century. Actually, the murder rate is down sharply in that time, despite a recent spike.

On Tuesday, he told a meeting of sheriffs: "The...

(Tribune news services)

"This is a national tragedy, and it requires national action. This violence must end, and we must all work together to end it.

"Whether a child lives in Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore or anywhere in our country, he or she has the right to grow up in safety and in peace."

Trump's remarks represented the second consecutive day he touched on Chicago crime — and the fifth time in less than three weeks in office.

On Tuesday, during a White House meeting with sheriffs, he singled out Chicago violence and repeated a debunked claim that the U.S. murder rate is the highest it's been in 45 years.

The most recent annual FBI statistics available show the national rate for murder and non-negligent manslaughter in 2015 was 4.9 per 100,000 people. That was lower than every year between 1996 and 2009, when the rate fell from 7.4 killings per 100,000 people to five for the same population.

The country's worst year for homicides in the modern era was either 1980, when the homicide rate hit its peak at 10.2 killings for every 100,000 people, with 23,040 homicides — or in 1991, when a record 24,703 people were killed, according to FBI statistics cited by the Los Angeles Times. The homicide rate in 1991 was 9.8 deaths per 100,000 people, FBI statistics show.

Trump reportedly claimed 2 were shot dead in Chicago during Obama’s speech. But it never happened. Jeremy Gorner and Jason Meisner

An ABC News transcript of its interview with President Donald Trump on Wednesday quoted him as saying that two people were fatally shot in Chicago while his predecessor, Barack Obama, was giving his farewell speech at McCormick Place — a claim shown to be false by Police Department records.

The...

An ABC News transcript of its interview with President Donald Trump on Wednesday quoted him as saying that two people were fatally shot in Chicago while his predecessor, Barack Obama, was giving his farewell speech at McCormick Place — a claim shown to be false by Police Department records.

The...

(Jeremy Gorner and Jason Meisner)

After years of decline, homicides in Chicago have been on the rise and exceeded 760 last year, the worst in two decades.

kskiba@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @KatherineSkiba

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