The knotty issue of immigration as revealed in John Lennon’s deportation case

*Here’s the short of it: President Nixon wanted to deport John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and that started a long legal battle that was never resolved – Lennon died before it was done. Nixon’s administration argued that the president had prosecutorial discretion; there were so many people to deport he needed to prioritize. President Obama used the Lennon premise as a base for his massive deportations. Interesting stuff. VL


By Daniel Kanstroom, The Washington Post (7.5 minute read) washingtonpost

Of all the associations one might have with the name John Lennon, “ deportable alien ” would not be likely to top many lists. And yet, according to Leon Wildes, a well-known and highly respected immigration lawyer for more than half a century, the former Beatle’s most enduring legacy may not be musical, artistic or cultural, but — strangely — legal.

More than 40 years after litigating what was undoubtedly the deportation case of his lifetime, Wildes has written an engaging book, “John Lennon vs. the USA,” that recounts a remarkable (and remarkably complex) legal story. The tale has been told before (in many articles written by Wildes and in a documentary, “The U.S. vs. John Lennon,” released in 2006). However, the book adds important details and a rather bold claim. It suggests that the roots of President Obama’s highly controversial assertion of broad discretionary power to shield millions from deportation lie in a most strange place: the Nixon administration’s rather sordid but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to deport Lennon and Yoko Ono in the early 1970s. (Both got green cards and were allowed to live permanently in the United States. Lennon was murdered in New York in 1980 before he could apply for citizenship.)

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Wildes argues that “John’s legacy is a broad attempt to reform the immigration process in a humanitarian way.” What he means is that the Lennon case was largely about the controversial idea of government discretion to pursue or not to pursue particular deportation cases.

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Daniel Kanstroom is a professor of law at Boston College and co-director of the university’s Center for Human Rights and International Justice.

[Photo by NeilFraudstrong/Flickr]

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