Leon Wildes, immigration lawyer who fought to prevent John Lennon’s deportation, dead at age 90

By HILLEL ITALIE
AP National Writer

A prominent immigration lawyer and improbable hero among Beatles fans has died. Leon Wildes was 90. Wildes was known for his landmark, yearslong fight in the 1970s to prevent John Lennon from being deported and enable the former Beatle to receive permanent residency in the U.S. The government had sought to kick out Lennon in 1972, citing his arrest for drug possession a few years earlier. Lennon was actually being targeted by the Nixon administration, which feared that Lennon’s large following and anti-war beliefs politics might damage Nixon’s chances for re-election.