First-term Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) delivered a speech as the Republican response to the State of the Union address given by President Joe Biden on March 7. In this response, Britt criticized Biden’s immigration policy and its effects on the state of American homes and the American dream. To say Britt has missed the mark would be an understatement. 

At the beginning of her speech, Britt uses a story from when she first took office to explain why Biden’s loose border policies are detrimental to the United States. The story is from a woman who Katie Britt spoke to in the Del Rio Sector of Texas who was brutally sex trafficked since age 12 by “the cartels.” She goes on to say that we, as a people, would not accept this happening in a third-world country and ponders why then we would allow it to occur in our own country. The story Britt is referencing, however, occurred in Mexico and is from a young girl who came forward in 2004-08 during Republican President George Bush’s term. Britt, since the release of her response, has confirmed the story didn’t occur during the Biden administration and that she used the story to highlight the gravity of human trafficking at the Mexican border. 

The woman Britt is speaking of is Karla Jacinto Romero, a sex trafficking survivor who was abused over 15 years ago. Romero is now an activist against sex-trafficking and wishes to spread awareness of its reality but also states that she wishes to keep it out of politics, stating that she typically “rarely cooperates with politicians” because they only wish to use her story as an example, just as Britt has done. 

The issue with Britt’s statement is not that she used a story to push a particular agenda; but the fact that she lied and continued to lie when confronted with evidence. Britt first lied by presenting the story of the sex-trafficked girl as something that happened during the Biden administration by segwaying into the woman’s recounting after saying, “We know that President Biden didn’t just create this border crisis. He invited it.” Upon completing the recounting, Britt stated, “This is the United States of America, and it’s past time we start acting like it,” despite knowing that this tragedy did not occur in the U.S., Britt’s later statement in which she said that she did not insinuate that this trafficking occurred in the U.S. or during the Biden administration is a falsehood. 

Lying is rampant in politics especially with social media and its ability to rapidly spread misinformation. However, disinformation, as well as admittance to it, only fosters further distrust. By beginning her rebuttal speech with a grave falsehood, Britt set herself up to be dismissed and seen as idiotic and dim-witted for the rest of her arguments, no matter their individual validity. 

There are valid criticisms of Biden’s immigration policies to be noted. Furthermore, there are many harsh realities that contribute to the current border crisis, which the Biden administration has not been able to control. This includes an influx of migrants and refugees since 2020 due to global affairs such as international wars, nations’ reactions to COVID-19 and natural disasters. Overloading cases have caused the treatment of migrants at the border to worsen and the number of people gaining legal access to the country to decrease, despite the success of Biden’s policy and an increase in legal immigration for the U.S. Of all these reasons and arguments, Britt could have chosen to further her Republican view of favoring a closed border policy. Still, she chose instead to lie and provoke Democrats, other opposing parties and even many members of her own party. 

Britt’s speech was so remarkably upsetting, for the above reasons and others, to the public that Saturday Night Live quickly got to work on creating a parody where Britt was portrayed by actress Scarlett Johansson. The skit focuses on many of the atmospheric choices made by Britt in the delivery of her speech, such as an oddly seductive vocal tone and the constant remarking on the fact that she sat in her oddly spotless IKEA family kitchen because “women love kitchen.”

On Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) podcast “Verdict,” Britt’s response to the SNL skit parodying her is, in her words, a compliment and she was “pretty pumped” by the choices made representative of her, particularly the casting. Britt seems unaware of both current affairs at the border as well as the fact that we are all laughing at her, not with her. 

Caitlin Wong, FCRH ’27 is a psychology and English Major from Union, N.J.