Sex trafficking survivor evoked by Britt responds to controversy

The sex trafficking survivor who was evoked in Sen. Katie Britt’s (R-Ala.) rebuttal to President Biden’s State of the Union address said in a new interview that she thinks it is “not fair” Britt told her story without her consent.

“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 told CNN on Sunday.

Jacinto had been profiled by CNN as part of a series highlighting the prevalence of modern-day slavery, telling the network she felt Mexican politicians took advantage of her story and used it for political purposes.

In the new interview, she affirmed the reporter’s suggestion that a similar situation seems to be happening again in the United States.

“I work as a spokesperson for many victims who have no voice, and I really would like them to be empathetic: all the governors, all the senators, to be 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,” Jacinto said, according to a translation of the interview provided by CNN.

“And I think [Britt] should first take into account what really happens before telling a story of that magnitude,” Jacinto added.

Jacinto’s latest remarks come after Britt’s rebuttal unleashed a firestorm of criticism centered on her performance and her usage of Jacinto’s story to attack Biden’s border policies.

“When I first took office, I did something different. I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas, where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at age 12,” Brett said in her rebuttal. “President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace. It’s despicable. And it’s almost entirely preventable.”

Britt, in subsequent interviews, pointed out that she did not say explicitly the episode she described occurred during Biden’s presidency and her office has disputed that Britt’s language was misleading.

The Hill has reached out to Britt’s office for a response to Jacinto’s remarks.