Caption: Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar speaks during the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on September 26, 2025.
By Prior Beharry
PRIME Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says she’s grateful for the US military presence in the southern Caribbean, praising US President Donald Trump stance on immigration and noted the escalator and teleprompter at the United Nations General Assembly were working.
In her address to the UNGA on Friday, she said, “Criminal syndicates are abusing asylum requests for refugee status.
“Therefore, Trinidad and Tobago is particularly grateful for the US military presence in the southern Caribbean, which has been very effective in inhibiting the innumerable activities of drug cartels within our country.”
She said, “While there have been objections to the US military action against drug cartels from some countries, Trinidad and Tobago reminds the international community that, unless forceful and aggressive actions are taken, these evil drug cartels will continue their societal destruction because they believe affected nations will always unreservedly subscribe to morals and ethics which they themselves blatantly flout.
“That is why we willingly supported the international security alliance announced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, involving the US and several countries in South America to combat drug-trafficking in the hemisphere.”
At the beginning of her address, Persad-Bissessar alluded to the working teleprompter, a sore point of US President Donald Trump when he had addressed the General Assembly a few days ago
She said, “Madam president, I’m very happy to say the escalator actually worked today, I’m very happy to say the teleprompter is also working, so … I have had some blessings coming to the UN today.”
Persad-Bissesar also took a jab at the Caribbean Communuty (CARICOM), stating, “The notion that the Caribbean is a Zone of Peace has become a false ideal. The reality is stark—no such Peace exists today.”
She said, “For too many in our region, peace is not daily life but an elusive promise glimpsed, never grasped. In its absence, our citizens pay a terrible toll.
“In 2024, Trinidad and Tobago, a nation of 1.4 million, recorded 623 murders — forty-one per one hundred thousand — with over forty per cent gang-related, driven by narcotics and firearms.
“In the last 25 years, we have had over ten thousand murders, which is equivalent to losing 1% of our adult population.
“Across Latin America and the Caribbean, homicides range from twenty to more than sixty per one hundred thousand.”
Praising Trump’s stand on immigration, Persad-Bisssessar said, “President Trump’s comments on the deleterious effects on countries of relentless narco and human trafficking, organised crime, and illegal immigration are correct. Countries are not only defined by geographical borders but also by cultural identities, religious beliefs, ethnic compositions and legal structures.
“That is why through legal immigration persons are allowed entry because they fulfil the criteria to integrate into the existing population and add value to their own lives as well as their adopted society at large. Illegal immigration neglects all checks and balances and will only create long term disorder as most illegal immigrants will not be able to assimilate into the existing societies, inevitably leading to greater poverty, crime and cultural antagonism.
“This is not phobia or hyperbole; it is simply the truth.
“Small countries like Trinidad and Tobago also suffer from illegal immigration.
“Because of the recent increased protections at the US southern border, Illegal migration of drug cartels and criminal gangs has been rerouted into the eastern Caribbean.
“It is driving increasing gang violence, drug, arms and human trafficking.
“Efforts to repatriate illegal immigrants from Trinidad and Tobago within recent times have proven difficult.
“Criminal syndicates are abusing asylum requests for refugee status.
“Therefore, Trinidad and Tobago is particularly grateful for the US military presence in the southern Caribbean, which has been very effective in inhibiting the innumerable activities of drug cartels within our country.
“While there have been objections to the US military action against drug cartels from some countries, Trinidad and Tobago reminds the international community that, unless forceful and aggressive actions are taken, these evil drug cartels will continue their societal destruction because they believe affected nations will always unreservedly subscribe to morals and ethics which they themselves blatantly flout.”
