TESTIMONY FOR LD 1383
LD 1383: An Act to Require State Divestment from Perpetrators of International Human Rights Violations
Assigned Committee: Committee on State and Local Government
Public hearing date: January 21st, 2026
Maine Green Independent Party urges the committee to vote Ought to Pass (OTP) on LD 1383
Good evening chairs Sen. Baldacci, Rep. Salisbury and honored members of the Committee on State and Local Government.
My name is Kelly Merrill and I serve as the Co-chair for the Maine Green Independent Party representing 37K members statewide. Thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of LD 1383, the Divestment Bill An Act to Require State Divestment from Perpetrators of International Human Rights Violations.
There are some matters that require a nuanced analysis to support a position. This is not one.
We are into a third year of genocide being live-streamed to our phones. And after normalizing genocide and rendering international law ineffectual, imperial violence has now turned inward.
ICE, a rogue agency that operates without accountability, is now the largest and best-funded agency in the country. At $37.5B, were it a military, it would rank among the best-funded 13th-best-funded in the world.
It’s about the money.
While housing and food insecurity rocket, and health-markers and reading-and-math scores plummet, instead of investing in sustaining life, the US has invested in endless war and endless death for the sake of profit, driving genocides, ecocides, and regime changes that cause mass migration. We choose not to.
We did not agree to a militarized state nor did we agree to an ethnostate.
Yet masked, armed paramilitary forces terrorize our communities, targeting and abducting Black and Brown citizens, tribal members and non-citizens alike; ramming cars, smashing windows, humiliating elders, sexually-assaulting women, gassing babies, and ending those who bear witness. ICE operates with impunity, spurred on by an Administration that is inciting violence. They’ve been busy today in our state the past two days, abducting people from Grant Street, Brighton Avenue, and Washington Ave in Portland, and Home Depot in South Portland.
They’ve been busy One woman was abducted after she dropped off her child at school. She is a mother of 4.
We need to stand up to this tyranny on all fronts, and we have an opportunity here today.
We ask that you divest our state from the crimes of the billionaire class that is perpetuating and profiting from genocide and human rights atrocities.
Profiting from death, destruction, and deportation is a moral injury to us all, and we will not be robbed of our humanity.
This is a pivotal political moment, and this is a very important bill. Exercise courage with moral clarity. We respectfully urge this committee vote OTP on LD 1383.
Respectfully submitted,
Kelly F. Merrill
Co-Chair, Maine Green Independent Party
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