Our beloved Founding Member and renowned immigration attorney Leon Wildes passed away on January 8, 2024, in Manhattan, surrounded by family. He was 90 years old.
Mr. Wildes founded immigration law firm Wildes & Weinberg P.C. in 1960 and grew it to become the premier immigration boutique in the country. He was a scholar in his field of immigration law and a devoted advocate for his clients.
While he helped secure green cards and citizenship for many thousands of immigrants, he is best known for his successful representation of John Lennon, the former Beatle, and his wife Yoko Ono Lennon. In a landmark case that helped set the groundwork for President Obama’s DACA program, Mr. Wildes successfully fought the Nixon administration’s effort to deport Mr. Lennon, who was perceived as a threat by President Nixon based on Mr. Lennon’s anti-war views. The case was memorialized in a book authored by Mr. Wildes, John Lennon vs. The U.S.A.: The Inside Story of the Most Bitterly Contested and Influential Deportation Case in United States History.
Mr. Wildes is a graduate of the undergraduate college at Yeshiva University and holds a J.D. and LL.M. degrees from the New York University School of Law. He was an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, where he taught immigration law from more than 33 years. Mr. Wildes served as National President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and has testified before the United States Congress as an expert in immigration matters.
Mr. Wildes is survived by his wife, Alice, sons, Michael and Mark, eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. His immigration legacy is carried on by his son Michael, a distinguished practitioner and managing partner of Wildes & Weinberg P.C., and grandson, Joshua Wildes, who joined the firm in 2021.
