The case that changed immigration law.

In 1972, John Lennon was the most famous musician alive — and, to the Nixon administration, a political threat. His outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War had made him a target, and the government moved to deport him on the pretext of a minor prior conviction abroad. Lennon and Yoko Ono turned to a young New York immigration lawyer named Leon Wildes.

A fight on four fronts

What followed was a four-year legal battle waged through four separate federal lawsuits. Wildes challenged the government at every turn — and in doing so, exposed how immigration enforcement was being used as an instrument of political retaliation.

The discovery that outlived the case

In the course of his defense, Leon Wildes uncovered something the government had never publicly acknowledged: a confidential program under which immigration authorities quietly declined to deport sympathetic individuals — what would come to be understood as deferred action, the foundation of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law. His insistence on bringing that program into the light shaped how the system treats discretion to this day.

Victory — and legacy

In 1976, Lennon won his green card. But the significance reached far beyond one client. The case established that immigration law could not be weaponized against political dissent, contributed to lasting reform, and created precedent that continues to protect immigrants half a century later. It is, to this day, the case by which the firm is known — and the standard to which it holds every matter it accepts.