Senator Calls for Mamdani to Be Arrested and Sent to Guantanamo

What the report says

Rolling Stone reported that Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani should be arrested and sent to the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay after Mamdani criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In remarks circulated in a video posted July 23, Tuberville called Mamdani a “thug” and suggested that at some point officials would decide to put him in handcuffs and send him to “Gitmo.”

The dispute followed a video from Mamdani in which he said his administration had reviewed whether New York City could act on an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Netanyahu if he visits for the United Nations General Assembly in September. According to the article, Mamdani said the city lacks independent authority to enforce the warrant, while arguing the federal government could do so if it joined the ICC. He also said Netanyahu was not welcome in New York City.

Rolling Stone said Mamdani had previously indicated during his campaign that he would try to enforce the ICC warrant if Netanyahu came to the city. The article connected Tuberville’s comments to broader criticism from conservative and pro-Israel politicians, including Rep. Randy Fine, Rep. Nancy Mace, Sen. John Fetterman and President Donald Trump, who said on Truth Social that Netanyahu would not be arrested in the United States.

The issue matters because it sits at the intersection of U.S. policy toward Israel, international criminal law and domestic political attacks on Mamdani, who Rolling Stone noted was born in Uganda and became a U.S. citizen in 2012. The United States is not a party to the ICC, making any federal enforcement of such a warrant politically and legally unlikely.