The recent State of the Union address provided a platform for up-and-coming politicians to make a name for themselves, but for Katie Britt, a first-term Republican senator from Alabama, her debut was overshadowed by controversy.
During her speech, delivered from her kitchen in Montgomery, Ala., Britt shared a harrowing story of a Mexican girl who was a victim of sex trafficking at the age of 12. The story was used to criticize President Biden’s border policies, but it was later revealed that the woman referenced by Britt was never trafficked across the border and her experience took place years before Biden took office.
The woman in question, Karla Jacinto Romero, is a Mexican citizen who has spoken out about her experiences of being forced into sexual slavery. She was not informed ahead of time that Britt would be discussing her in the speech and expressed that she prefers to keep politics out of the issue of human trafficking.
Despite the misleading nature of the story, a spokesman for Britt stood behind her speech, claiming it was “100 percent correct.” The White House, however, called Britt’s remarks “debunked lies.”
This is not the first time Jacinto’s experience has been used for political gain. Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn organized an event in Texas in 2023 where Jacinto was featured to criticize Biden’s border policies.
Andy McCullough, the executive director of Reintegra, an organization that supports victims of sex trafficking, expressed concern over how Jacinto’s story was being manipulated for political purposes. He emphasized the need to address human trafficking as a humanitarian issue rather than a political one.
Overall, the controversy surrounding Britt’s speech highlights the importance of accurately representing the experiences of victims of human trafficking and the need to address the issue with sensitivity and compassion, rather than using it as a political tool.
