Getting famous for bragging about sex before an anonymous audience of millions is the new American dream. It’s capitalism in its purest form. It’s the free market doing what it does. And [KAT STACKS] online persona was more American than Betsy Ross eating a Big Mac at a gun range without health insurance. Going from a hard-knock life of horror to internet fame and popularity might not be as traditional as starting a business and sending your kids to college, but clearly, Herrera had determination, smarts, and a sense of entrepreneurship—values praised by Democrats and Republicans alike.

As Herrera sat in an immigration holding center waiting for her one-way flight to Caracas, a group of DREAM activists created an online petition that focused on her troubled life as a victim of sex trafficking and turned the infamous Kat Stacks persona into a positive by arguing that hers was a narrative of victimhood and empowerment, which embodied the struggle many undocumented immigrants and sex trafficking victims face.

“Kat Stacks—or Andrea Herrera, her real name—was a victim of her circumstances who overcame those circumstances by empowering herself and other people,” said Prerna Lal, one of the founders of DreamActivist.org, the group behind the petition. “She fought against her situation, and she shouldn’t have been penalized for fighting back.”

The idea that Herrera was talking shit about rappers in YouTube videos as a way to fight back against the people who abused and trafficked her sounds strange. And no doubt many of Herrera’s online detractors will LOL at such a claim. But others have argued it’s no different than what some rappers do when they brag about sexual conquests in their lyrics—Herrera just didn’t have a beat behind her when she did it.

The next time in court, Herrera’s past was closely considered, including a missing-children’s report from when she was kidnapped at age 14 and evidence that she was forced into prostitution. According to Herrera, this is what they didn’t do the first time around.

“All of that should have played in court, and they should have made the decision to protect the victim and not persecute them,” she told me. “But instead of doing that, they tried to deport me for entertainment videos.”