The Department of Homeland Security slammed a recent police shooting in Pennsylvania as a "terror attack" — even though no information has been released to back up that classification.
Echoing President Trump's diatribes against so-called chain migration, a Homeland Security spokesman said Ahmed Amin El-Mofty carried out a "terror attack" when he opened fire on a number police officers in Harrisburg, Pa., on Friday afternoon.
"El-Mofty was a naturalized U.S. citizen who was admitted to the United States from Egypt on a family-based immigrant visa," Tyler Houlton, who serves as the department's acting press secretary, said in a statement late Saturday. "The long chain of migration that led to the suspect's admissions into the United States was initiated years ago by a distant relative of the suspect."
Houlton's statement did not clarify how the department arrived at the terror categorization. Local authorities, including Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Lou Barletta, have said they are monitoring the situation for "potential links to terrorism."
Gunman killed after targeting Pennsylvania cops in shootout
Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily News.
Investigators are only supposed to use the "terror attack" classification if it has been established that a suspect carried out violence in the name of political, ideological or religious goals, according to federal prosecutorial code.
The seal of the Department of Homeland Security is seen at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington, D.C.
(SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)While local officials said they had "no doubt" El-Mofty "directly" targeted officers during his Friday rampage, investigators have so far not established any clear ties to terrorism.
El-Mofty, 51, was shot dead after he opened fire on Capitol Police officers before fleeing and engaging in a second shootout with Pennsylvania State Troopers. One officer was wounded in the exchange but is expected to survive.
Shots fired at officers from home in Pennsylvania
Houlton, the Homeland Security spokesman, said the Harrisburg incident highlights the Trump administration's concerns with legal "family chain migration."
"Both chain migration and the diversity visa lottery program have been exploited by terrorists to attack our country," Houlton said.
Chain migration — a term often misused by anti-immigration hardliners and adherents of the far-right — is a decades-old system that allows family members of immigrants to join their relatives in the U.S.