A number of liberal Twitter users and journalists spread a conspiracy theory Thursday insisting a Department of Homeland Security document contained a secret Nazi code.

In February, DHS put out a press release entitled "We Must Secure The Border And Build The Wall To Make America Safe Again," a fact-sheet making the case for President Donald Trump's proposed border wall. "When it comes to stopping drugs and illegal aliens across our borders, border walls have proven to be extremely effective," it argued.

The press release went largely unnoticed until months later, when a tweet accusing the document of being a dog whistle for Nazis garnered nearly 7,000 retweets. The viral claim suggested the headline was a reference to "Fourteen Words," common white supremacist credos. The most widely known variation states, "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."

"This is an actual story on an official government website with a 14-word headline starting with ‘we must secure,'" Twitter user Lauie Voss noted. "This is not an accident. There are actual Nazis-who-call-themselves-Nazis at DHS."

This is an actual story on an official government website with a 14-word headline starting with "we must secure". This is not an accident. There are actual Nazis-who-call-themselves-Nazis at DHS. https://t.co/Q01TRRpNaI — Laurie Voss (@seldo) June 28, 2018

Voss likewise pointed out that the press release also had 14 points and that it contained an unnecessary use of the number 88, often used as Nazi code for "Heil Hitler."

There are 14 points in the article, and the final point contains the number "88" for no good reason — 88 is also a Nazi dog whistle for "Heil Hitler". https://t.co/WLT3CEqfUw There is absolutely no doubt now that this article is intentionally a signal to Nazis. pic.twitter.com/njS5MDMNIr — Laurie Voss (@seldo) June 28, 2018

Voss's tweet quickly spread throughout the liberal Twittersphere, and was even tweeted out by journalists at BuzzFeed, HuffPost, The New York Times Magazine, the Daily Beast, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post.

This is genuinely weird https://t.co/Q8KNjcalfm — Bill Wasik (@billwasik) June 28, 2018

The "14 words" is a white supremacist slogan that goes "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." New DHS press release is also 14 words, and is titled: "We Must Secure The Border And Build The Wall To Make America Safe Again" https://t.co/1cXGUqlwPq — Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) June 28, 2018

Officials at liberal PACs like American Bridge and EMILY's List also spread the conspiracy theory.

The random use of 88/14 is what clinches it. I've been in touch with people on the hill about this, and DHS better not stonewall us on this FOIA https://t.co/z83eWGgeJR — Pat Dennis (@patdennis) June 28, 2018

Thread on some very disturbing signals being sent from DHS. Like the white power hand symbols and the "accidental" retweeting of white supremacist memes, these should always be called out. That they're coming from inside the government should scare us all. https://t.co/DL5NHEGBed — Christina Reynolds (@creynoldsnc) June 28, 2018

In actuality, the press release only has 13 bullet points. When called out on the inconsistency, Voss said she added an unbulleted paragraph to reach 14.

Yeah, one point doesn't have a bullet and is bolded instead. That's not as obvious as the 88. Who uses "88" as an example of a fraction? Why not 100, or 50 or literally any round number? — Laurie Voss (@seldo) June 28, 2018

Despite Voss's claim there "was no good reason" to use the number 88, there's an easy explanation for why DHS used it when discussing immigrants who file credible fear asylum claims. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data indicates that "U.S. asylum officers accepted nearly 88 percent of the claims of credible fear," as reported by Reuters, and the press release clearly refers to that context.

As for the press release beginning "we must secure," that phrase was used by DHS dating back to the Obama administration in relation to its duties to protect the border. It was even one of the "five responsibilities" espoused by Obama's first DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano.

"We must guard against terrorism; we must secure our borders; we must enforce our immigration laws; we must improve our readiness for, response to, and recovery from disasters; and we must unify the Department so that we can even more effectively carry out our mission," Napolitano said in a statement.