Sex Trafficking Survivor Calls Out Sen. Britt For Inaccurate SOTU Story

A sex trafficking survivor is firing back at Sen. Katie Britt’s (R-Ala.) distorted retelling of her story in a prime-time response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address last week, saying she believes her harrowing experience was used by Britt purely for political purposes.

“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,” Karla Jacinto Romero told CNN on Sunday when asked about the Republican Alabama senator’s motive.

Romero, in a translated interview from her native Spanish, said she would like to see politicians be more empathetic with “the issue of human trafficking because there are millions of girls and boys who disappear all the time.”

“People who are really trafficked and abused, as she [Britt] mentioned. And I think she should first take into account what really happens before telling a story of that magnitude,” said Romero.

Though Britt did not mention Romero by name in her speech, her communication director confirmed to The Washington Post that the story was about Romero.

Britt, in her highly emotional, televised response to Biden, said she met Romero in Texas after taking office in 2023 and heard her story of being sex trafficked by drug cartels starting at the age of 12. Britt blamed President Joe Biden’s handling of the border for what happened.

“We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third-world country,” Britt said. “This is the United States of America, and it is past time, in my opinion, that we start acting like it. President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace. This crisis is despicable.”

A number of falsehoods have been widely flagged about Britt’s story, however.

Romero’s