CHICAGO (CBS) — Outspoken presidential candidate Donald Trump has raised some eyebrows, connecting Chicago’s crime to illegal immigrants.

Are Trump’s comments on the matter, fact or fiction?

CBS 2’s Jim Williams reports.

Trump, polling first among the Republican presidential candidates, is winning support and drawing critics because of his tough stand on illegal immigration.

In recent days, he’s blamed illegal immigrants for filling the ranks of violent street gangs in three cities, including Chicago.

“When you look at Baltimore when you look at Chicago and Ferguson [Mo.], a lot of these areas, a lot of these gang members are illegal immigrants,” Trump said recently on a Mobile, Ala., radio station

The chairman of the city council Public Safety Committee insists that simply isn’t true in Chicago.

“We do have crime issues, some shootings, but to say that it’s due to the immigration issue is completely false,” said Ald. Ariel Reboyras.

Professor Harold Pollack, co-director of the University of Chicago’s crime lab, agrees.

“There’s almost no evidence to back that up,” he said.

“We could basically identify any number of groups of Americans that include some people who are harming other people,” Pollack added.

“If we ignore all the benefits that group otherwise provides, then it’s easy to single them out.”

A Chicago Police Department spokesman said it doesn’t even have a category for crimes committed by illegal immigrants.

Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for a comment.