When Alabama Senator Katie Britt told a graphic tale of sex trafficking and rape in the Republican response to President Biden’s State of the Union address, she used an inaccurate portrayal to politicize Biden’s immigration policies.
According to the victim herself, a woman named Karla Jacinta Romero, the incident happened during President George W. Bush’s administration, when Biden was still a senator.
Romero slammed Britt for her inaccurate politicization of the traumatic events she endured.
“In fact I hardly ever cooperate with politicians because it seems to me that they only want an image. They only want a photo, and that to me is not fair,” Romero told CNN on Sunday.
Romero said that she was trafficked by a pimp who operated as part of a family that entrapped vulnerable girls to force them into prostitution, not by Mexican drug cartels. Romero also said that she was never trafficked in the United States, as Britt suggested.
“I work as a spokesperson for many victims who have no voice, and I really would like them to be empathetic — all the governors, all the senators — to be empathetic with the issue of human trafficking because there are millions of girls and boys who disappear all the time,” Romero said. “People who are really trafficked and abused, as [Britt] mentioned. And I think [Britt] should first take into account what really happens before telling a story of that magnitude.”