Current:Home > Contact-usKatie Britt used decades-old example of rapes in Mexico as Republican attack on Biden border policy-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
Katie Britt used decades-old example of rapes in Mexico as Republican attack on Biden border policy
View Date:2024-12-24 08:34:30
The Republican senator who gave the party’s response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address used a harrowing account of a young woman’s sexual abuse to attack his border policies, but the rapes did not happen in the U.S. or during the Biden administration.
First-term Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama in the GOP response criticized current immigration policies, describing how she had met a woman at the U.S.-Mexico border who told of being raped thousands of times in a sex trafficking operation run by cartels, starting at age 12.
The victim has previously spoken publicly about the abuse happening in her home country of Mexico from 2004 to 2008 — not in the United States during the Biden administration. Yet, Britt used the account to chastise Biden’s action on the border.
“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 televised from her home in Alabama. “President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace.”
Britt’s comments reflect that border security is a key theme of the Republican party and former President Donald Trump’s campaign in this election year.
Independent journalist Jonathan Katz revealed in a TikTok video Friday that the sex trafficking of that victim did not happen during the Biden administration or in the United States.
Britt spokesman Sean Ross on Saturday confirmed to The Associated Press that the senator was speaking about the account of a young Mexican woman who told of being repeatedly raped in Mexico from 2004 to 2008 — when Republican George W. Bush was the U.S. president.
Britt traveled to the border at the Del Rio Sector in Texas in January 2023 with fellow Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, according to a news release issued then from Hyde-Smith’s office.
“The Senators held a roundtable with former Mexican Congresswoman Rosa María de la Garza, Fox News Contributor Sara Carter and Karla Jacinto Romero, a survivor of human trafficking,” the news release said. “The Senators learned about cartel activity in Mexico and the work being done to rescue victims of human trafficking.”
Romero has spoken publicly about being a victim of child prostitution in Mexico, including during 2015 testimony to a subcommittee of the U.S. House. Romero, then 22, told the subcommittee that she was 12 when her mother threw her out on the streets, and a pimp trafficked her to more than 40,000 clients over four years. Romero said many of the clients were foreigners who had traveled to Mexico for sexual interactions with minors like her.
veryGood! (6)
Related
- Top Federal Reserve official defends central bank’s independence in wake of Trump win
- Trump's arraignment on federal charges: Here's what to expect
- Francia Raísa Addresses Claim She Was Forced to Donate Kidney to Selena Gomez
- YouTuber Jimmy MrBeast Donaldson sues company that developed his burgers
- Michigan soldier’s daughter finally took a long look at his 250 WWII letters
- Ginger has been used for thousands of years. What are its health benefits?
- 'Potentially hazardous', 600-foot asteroid seen by scanner poses no immediate risk to Earth, scientists say
- Ohio utility that paid federal penalty says it’s now being investigated by a state commission
- UConn, Kansas State among five women's college basketball games to watch this weekend
- Swaths of the US are living through a brutal summer. It’s a climate wake-up call for many
Ranking
- Wendi McLendon-Covey talks NBC sitcom 'St. Denis Medical' and hospital humor
- This Northern Manhattan Wetland Has Faced Climate-Change-Induced Erosion and Sea Level Rise. A Living Shoreline Has Reimagined the Space
- Yankees' Domingo Germán entering treatment for alcohol abuse, placed on restricted list
- Father dies after rescuing his three children from New Jersey waterway
- UConn, Kansas State among five women's college basketball games to watch this weekend
- Adidas is donating Yeezy sales to anti-hate groups. US Jews say it’s making best of bad situation
- Botched's Dr. Terry Dubrow & Dr. Paul Nassif Tease Show's Most Life-Changing Surgery Yet
- Isla Fisher and Sacha Baron Cohen Pack on the PDA During Greece Vacation
Recommendation
-
Britney Spears Reunites With Son Jayden Federline After His Move to Hawaii
-
Passenger arrested on Delta flight after cutting himself and a flight attendant, authorities say
-
Hex crypto founder used investor funds to buy $4.3 million black diamond, SEC says
-
Federal appeals court upholds ruling giving Indiana transgender students key bathroom access
-
The Fate of Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager's Today Fourth Hour Revealed
-
Federal jury acquits Louisiana trooper caught on camera pummeling Black motorist
-
As charges mount, here's a look at Trump's legal and political calendar
-
'A violation of our sovereignty': 2 bodies found in Rio Grande, one near a floating barrier