International Courant
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., is seen on the U.S. Capitol in the course of the vote on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024.
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Republican Senator Katie Britt of Alabama is below hearth for utilizing the expertise of a intercourse trafficking sufferer from the early 2000s to sentence President Joe Biden’s present border insurance policies.
In her Thursday response On Biden’s State of the Union tackle, Britt referred to a go to to the Del Rio sector of the Texas border, the place she had an apparently personal dialog with a survivor of intercourse trafficking by teams within the US
“There I spoke to a lady who shared her story with me,” Britt stated within the video. “She was trafficked for intercourse by the cartels from the age of 12.”
It later turned out that the girl in query was Karla Jacinto Romeroan activist who has publicly testified about her experiences with intercourse trafficking, which came about in Guadalajara and different Mexican cities from 2004 to 2008.
Britt apparently tried to current the anecdote as a damning instance of Biden’s border administration.
“We’d not approve of this taking place in a 3rd world nation,” she added. “President Biden’s border insurance policies are a shame. This disaster is despicable.”
However Jacinto Romero has not suffered intercourse trafficking within the US on account of Biden’s border insurance policies — as a result of he was not president from 2004 to 2008 and since she was trafficked in Mexico.
Britt’s implication that Jacinto Romero privately disclosed her experiences is just not supported by publicly accessible info.
Britt visited the Del Rio space January 2023 on a joint journey with Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss. Throughout that journey, Jacinto Romero appeared at a press convention with Britt, Blackburn and Hyde-Smith, the place she publicly shared her grueling story of intercourse trafficking.
Jacinto Romero is an advocate for victims of intercourse trafficking and has repeatedly shared her story testimony to us Congressthe Mexican Home of Representatives and the Vatican, in line with a short 2015 profile in a U.S. Home of Representatives doc.
Journalist Jonathan Katz has compiled Britt’s presentation of Jacinto Romero’s expertise for the primary time in a TikTok video on Friday.
Sean Ross, spokesperson for Senator Britt, didn’t deny that Jacinto Romero is the intercourse trafficking survivor in query, however doubled down on Britt’s story.
“The story Senator Britt informed was 100% right,” Ross stated in a press release to CNBC. “However there are extra harmless victims of this type of disgusting, brutal human trafficking by the cartels proper now than ever earlier than.”
Whereas intercourse trafficking has occurred within the US below the Biden administration, the Jacinto Romero intercourse trafficking story is just not an instance of that.
“At present, Karla is a contented and profitable mom of two stunning women, a spouse, a scholar and a global activist,” the 2015 Home doc reads.
Biden Refutes Sen. Britt for Utilizing 20-Yr-Previous Intercourse Trafficking Story to Assault Border Coverage
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