The opposition party’s response to the State of the Union address is a golden opportunity for up-and-coming and lesser-known politicians to introduce themselves to the nation and boost their political profile.
Such was the case for Katie Britt, a first-term Republican senator from Alabama who, despite being a newcomer to the national stage, has been mentioned as a possible choice to be Donald J. Trump’s running mate. But her big debut on Thursday night has been marred by intense scrutiny of an anecdote at the center of her speech, which was delivered from her kitchen in Montgomery, Ala.
The story, about a Mexican who was a victim of sex trafficking at the age of 12, came in the context of an attack on President Biden’s border policies. In impassioned tones, Ms. Britt described a girl being raped multiple times a day in dire conditions at the hands of cartels before she was able to escape.
“This is the United States of America, and it is past time, in my opinion, that we start acting like it,” Ms. Britt said. “President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace.”
As a rhetorical device, it would be hard conjure up a more powerful and resonant example. But the story was highly misleading and improperly contextualized.
The woman referenced by Ms. Britt was, in fact, never trafficked across the border, nor has she sought asylum in this country. And her harrowing experience took place between 2004 and 2008, while a Republican, George W. Bush, was in the White House and President Biden was still a senator.
In other words, it had nothing at all to do with the current administration’s border policy. But that didn’t stop Ms. Britt from inflaming public fears about immigration and placing blame at Mr. Biden’s feet.
“We know that President Biden didn’t just create this border crisis,” she said. “He invited it.”
Although Ms. Britt did not name the victim in her speech, she has previously shared the story of a woman who appears to be the same individual based on congressional testimony, news releases and news reports.
That woman, Karla Jacinto Romero, is a Mexican citizen who does not live in the United States and who has spoken frequently about her experiences of being forced into sexual slavery for four years. In 2023, Ms. Jacinto participated in an event in Texas near the border with Mexico that was also attended by three senators, including Ms. Britt. In a video released shortly after that trip, Ms. Britt discussed Ms. Jacinto’s experiences.
Ms. Jacinto, who spoke with the Times Saturday from Mexico, said she had not been informed ahead of time that Ms. Britt would be discussing her in the speech and only learned about it after a video pointing out the deceptive framing of the senator’s speech was posted by the independent journalist Jonathan Katz on TikTok on Friday.
“I only found out via social media,” said Ms. Jacinto, who continues to speak frequently about human trafficking and who is supported by a U.S.-based nonprofit, Reintegra, that provides educational grants to victims of sex trafficking in Latin America. “I thought it was very strange.”
She said she preferred to keep politics out of the question of human trafficking. “I am involved in the fight to stop trafficking and I don’t think it should be political,” she said. “The work I do is not a game.”
A spokesman for Ms. Britt, Sean Ross, stood behind her speech.
“The story Senator Britt told was 100 percent correct,” he said in a statement. “And there are more innocent victims of that kind of disgusting, brutal trafficking by the cartels than ever before right now. The Biden administration’s policies — the policies in this country that the president falsely claims are humane — have empowered the cartels and acted as a magnet to a historic level of migrants making the dangerous journey to our border.”
Mr. Ross did not respond to a follow-up question about what direct responsibility the Biden administration had for…
This article was originally published by a www.nytimes.com . Read the Original article here. .