The White House rebuked Senator Katie Britt for a section of her response to President Biden's State of the Union, where she recounted the story of a migrant who had been sexually abused.
Deputy press secretary Andrew Bates stated that Senator Britt should stop spreading false information about opposing the border legislation and instead prioritize national security and the Border Patrol Union. He referred to President Biden's remarks about the need to address the border issue.
Britt used much of her rebuttal to slam Biden over his handling of the southern border. To illustrate her point, she described how she met a woman at the U.S.-Mexico border who recounted being raped thousands of times in a sex trafficking operation run by cartels, starting at age 12.
“We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third-world country. This is the United States of America, and it’s past time we start acting like it,” Britt said in the Thursday night speech. “President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace.”
But independent journalist Jonathan Katz first raised that the woman Britt was talking about was not related to the Biden administration’s policies, nor did her abuse take place in the U.S. The Associated Press, Washington Post and other outlets all confirmed that Britt’s story was referring to Karla Jacinto Romero, who testified before Congress in 2015 about being forced to work in Mexican brothels from 2004 to 2008.
A spokesperson for Britt confirmed to those outlets she was talking about Romero, but disputed that the senator’s language was misleading. Britt met Romero during a 2023 trip to the border.
In a “Fox News Sunday” interview with Shannon Bream, Britt brushed off the criticism, claiming the story is symbolic of the president’s border policy.
The White House has criticized Britt and other Republicans for opposing a bipartisan border security bill in the Senate that would have provided additional resources to Border Patrol, ended catch and release and tightened restrictions on asylum and how many migrants can enter the country.
The bill was crafted by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), but Republican lawmakers lined up to oppose it after former President Trump discouraged them from voting for it.
