Omar Took 2017 Trip Sponsored by Group Now Supporting Immigrant Caravans
CORRECTION, Feb. 27, 2019: The original headline of the article, “Omar Took Trip Sponsored by Pro-Caravan Group, Promised to ‘Continue Their Fight on American Soil’,” was misleading. The headline implied that the fight Omar promised to “continue” was related to the immigrant caravans. That was not the case, as our article did make clear. As far as The Western Journal has been able to determine, Witness for Peace did not make a public statement of support for the immigrant caravans until Oct. 16, 2018, almost a full year after Omar’s trip.
In addition, the article was published on Facebook with a blurb referring to Omar’s trip as a “vacation.” That was a flippant characterization that we were not qualified to make, as we do not know the nature of the trip beyond what has been reported in other media, none of which have described the trip in that way.
We apologize to Rep. Omar for the misleading headline, which we have corrected, and the accompanying language on Facebook, which we have since deleted. We also apologize to our readers for any confusion we may have caused.
One member of Congress has vowed to dedicate herself to “dismantling patriarchy” after a trip to Honduras promoted by a group that now supports migrant caravan members trying to enter the United States illegally.
Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota spent time in the Central American nation on a 2017 trip organized by Witness for Peace. Witness for Peace opposed the 2017 election of Honduran President Juan Hernandez.
In a profile of the group, the Washington Free Beacon noted that it has on its board “activists who have called for efforts to ‘dismantle U.S. militarism,’ accused Israel of inflicting ‘institutionalized racism that equates to modern day apartheid,’ and pro-Maduro activists who write “dear comrade” letters calling for war against capitalism.”
Writing on Fox News, Lukas Milelionis wrote that the trip and Omar’s links to the group may be problematic when it comes to her fitness to serve on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Omar tweeted in 2017 about her trip and its impact on her views.
After traveling to Honduras as part of the Witness for Peace delegation, I’ve returned home with a heavy heart and deep concern for the electoral process and human rights crisis the people of Honduras are enduring.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 30, 2017
“We need to have conversations about race and class, and we need to understand the linkage between those things to dismantle ideas of patriarchy, misogyny, racism and capitalism, and what autonomy and self-determination needs to look like for women,” she tweeted in December 2017.
We need to have conversations about race and class, and we need to understand the linkage between those things to dismantle ideas of patriarchy, misogyny, racism and capitalism, and what autonomy and self-determination needs to look like for women. https://t.co/5vzY2pcW6p
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) December 15, 2017
Upon her return in December 2017, she said that she better understood her “intersectional feminism,” according to a video of a post-trip media event.
Omar praised activists “dismantling patriarchy” in Honduras, and vowed to “continue their fight on American soil,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Omar said during the trip she learned about “systems that exploit and oppress people and how they were all connected to the kind of resources and assistance our government was providing Honduras.”
“I was intrigued by the idea of practicing my intersectional feminism in that kind of way, and learning about the human rights struggle, the struggle for the human rights that’s happening in Honduras,” she said.
“What I didn’t prepare for, and what I got when I was there was just to see the brilliance, the creativity, the resilience, and the tenacity, and the sassiness of these women so fearlessly and boldly led the groups that were in the forefront of the social movement and the movement to guarantee human rights in Honduras,” she said.
She said she was deeply moved by Honduran activists who were battling misogyny and patriarchy.
“I am forever changed by that because I know that here, we had made a promise to them that we will continue their fight on American soil,” Omar said. “And, and we will assure and make sure that they continue to have joy in knowing that there are other people fighting alongside them, for them, and with them.”
Since being elected to Congress, Omar was forced to apologize publicly after being accused of making anti-Semitic remarks.
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