Advocates supporting victims and survivors of sex trafficking are speaking out about the politicization of trauma after Alabama Sen. Katie Britt wrongly tied a woman’s story to President Joe Biden’s border policies during the Republican response to the State of the Union address on Thursday.

From her kitchen, Britt told a story of a woman she met at the border who had been “sex trafficked by the cartels starting at age 12.” She then said, “President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace,” suggesting the horrific experiences happened during his term.

In a TikTok video, freelance journalist Jonathan Katz was among the first to poke holes in Britt’s response. The 12-year-old girl she referred to was confirmed to be now-31-year-old Karla Jacinto Romero, who previously testified before Congress about her time in captivity from 2004 to 2008, during former President George W. Bush’s term. Jacinto met Britt last year at the southern border during a roundtable with other senators and anti-human-trafficking activists.

“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,” Jacinto told CNN on Sunday.

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

Jacinto added that she did not meet personally with Britt and she was not trafficked by Mexican cartels.

Britt’s State of the Union response was met with backlash from Democrats and some Republicans. The incident inspired what some people are calling the best cold open SNL has had in months.

The San Antonio Express-News editorial board panned the response, writing that “the only memorable rebuttals are the ones so bad as to be made unforgettable.” The newspaper said Britt lied and exploited a woman’s lived experiences for “cheap political gain.”

According to openDemocracy, an independent media platform, trauma and suffering has always been a valuable commodity for journalists, politicians and publishers, who often use these stories to “raise awareness” about human trafficking.

“There is no doubt that stories can generate strong emotions. But these emotions are not always channeled in productive directions,” according to openDemocracy. “They can just as easily be misdirected or squandered.”

Survivors of human trafficking are often unable to control how their stories are told or when they are used to advance political agendas or other interests.

This isn’t the only recent incident of a conservative lawmaker politicizing tragedy to attack current asylum and border policy.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene heckled Biden during the State of the Union address while wearing a shirt with the phrase “say her name,” referring to the death of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley, who was killed by a Venezuelan migrant in February. Riley’s death has been used as an opportunity by Republicans like Greene to further push anti-immigrant rhetoric and legislation this election year. Biden’s response to her came under fire for referring to the accused assailant, Jose Ibarra, 26, as “illegal.”

In the Republican response, Britt affirmed Greene’s actions and said “We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third-world country.”

In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Britt’s answers were vague when prodded by host Shannon Bream if she meant to imply the trafficking happened during Biden’s presidency. Britt said she was talking about a now-grown woman.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement, “Instead of telling more debunked lies to justify opposing the toughest bipartisan border legislation in modern history, Sen. Britt should stop choosing human smugglers and fentanyl traffickers over our national security and the Border Patrol Union.”

The fight to end human trafficking is connected to government policies on immigration, drugs and labor. According to a 2019 study by the National Institute of Justice, anti-immigrant sentiment deters the implementation of safeguards for migrant trafficked people, despite strong overall support for anti-trafficking measures.

Anti-trafficking measures also compete against better-funded initiatives to deter migration, such as child separation programs in the U.S. “Plenty of people could testify to the cruelty of anti-immigration policies, but they are not the survivors governments are inclined to listen to,” according to openDemocracy.