(CNN) President Donald Trump appeared to assert Thursday that women from Central America are raped at "levels that nobody has ever seen before" as an argument for strengthening US immigration laws.

It is unclear where Trump derived the evidence for his seeming assertion that Central American women are being raped at unprecedented levels.

During a roundtable discussion on tax reform in West Virginia, the President devoted several minutes of his remarks to illegal immigration, including commenting about a caravan of migrants that includes some people attempting to reach the US border through Mexico.

"And remember my opening remarks at Trump Tower when I opened," Trump said, referring to his 2015 presidential announcement speech , in which he argued that Mexico is "not sending their best. ...They're rapists."

"Everybody said, 'Oh, he was so tough,' and I used the word rape," Trump said Thursday. "And yesterday, it came out where this journey coming up, women are raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before. They don't want to mention that. So we have to change our laws."

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