Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has asked the FBI to investigate a threatening post on Twitter he received after he wrote a post on social media about Mexican drug lord El Chapo, who has just escaped from prison.

According to ABC News, Trump informed the FBI office in Manhattan about the threat on Monday.

The Twitter post in question is from user @ElChap0Guzman which read in Spanish: "Keep [expletive] around and I'm gonna make you swallow your [expletive] words..."

It has yet to be known who is the owner of the Twitter account.

Trump, whom Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina described as "a wrecking ball for the future of the Republican Party with the Hispanic community," has been posting tweets about El Chapo's escape to strengthen his arguments on immigration and border security.

"El Chapo and the Mexican drug cartels use the border unimpeded like it was a vacuum cleaner, sucking drugs and death right into the US," Trump tweeted on Monday through his account @realDonaldTrump.

Trump also said in a tweet: "The joke around town is that I freed El Chapo from the Mexican prison because the timing was so good w/ my statements on border security."

In a statement also on Monday, Trump said he is "fighting for much more than myself."

"I'm fighting for the future of our country which is being overrun by criminals. You can't be intimidated. This is too important."

In his announcement speech last month, Trump claimed that Mexico is "not sending their best" people to the US.

"They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has already criticised Trump about his comments on Mexican immigrants.

"I have just one word for Mr. Trump: Basta! Enough!" she said.

"It was appalling to hear Donald Trump describe immigrants as drug dealers, criminals and rapists," she told the National Council of La Raza, an influential Hispanic advocacy group. "When people and business everywhere rejected his hateful comments, did he apologise? No. He doubled down. It is shameful and no one should stand for it."

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has escaped from a maximum security prison in Mexico over the weekend.

He was caught by authorities in February last year after more than a decade on the run.