FEMA workers providing recovery efforts in the wake of recent hurricanes were ordered to avoid the homes of Trump supports and leave them to die, according to reports.

According to internal messages, FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington in a group chat outlined “best practices” to workers surveying homes in south central Florida late last month, specifically ordering them to “avoid homes advertising Trump.”

Infowars.com reports: In a database documenting their contact with residents, workers wrote they were “not able to access property” when they encountered homes displaying Trump memorabilia, writing in additional notes, “Trump sign no entry per leadership,” “Per leadership no stop Trump flag,” “Trump sign,” and “Trump sign, no contact per leadership.”

The Wire notes at least 20 Trump-supporting homes were skipped over and were not inspected to see if they were able to qualify for FEMA assistance.

FEMA whistleblowers told the Wire it felt like they were being ordered to discriminate against Americans based on their political beliefs.

“I know they’re short-staffed, I thought we could go help and make a difference,” one worker told the Wire. “When we got there we were told to discriminate against people. It’s almost unbelievable to think that somebody in the federal government would think that’s okay.” 

“I volunteered to help disaster victims, not discriminate against them,” they added. “It didn’t matter if people were black, white, Hispanic, for Trump, for Harris. Everyone deserves the same amount of help.”

Responding to the Wire’s story, a FEMA representative said they were “deeply disturbed” and “horrified” with the FEMA official’s conduct.

Via the Wire:

“While we believe this is an isolated incident, we have taken measures to remove the employee from their role and are investigating the matter to prevent this from happening ever again,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The employee who issued this guidance had no authority and was given no direction to tell teams to avoid these homes and we are reaching out to the people who may have not been reached as a result of this incident.”

“This is a matter that we take extremely seriously and we are doing everything we can to make sure all survivors receive support from FEMA. To date, we have helped over 365,000 households impacted by both Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the state of Florida and have provided over $898 million in direct assistance to survivors.”

“We are horrified that this took place and therefore have taken extreme actions to correct this situation and have ensured that the matter was addressed at all levels. Helping people is what we do best and our workforce across the agency will continue to serve survivors for as long as it takes.”