John Lennon’s Immigration Ordeal

The iconic Beatles singer songwriter faced his own issues in court. Read the full story of John Lennon’s immigration ordeal.

Author: Noel Marie Laplume
Date: February 6, 2011

John Lennon, the man from Liverpool, England who extolled the benefits of a peaceful world and the virtues inherent in having love as a moral guide, was the creative force behind The Beatles whose music and individuality helped shape the lives of the baby-boom generation in the United States; thus, being an instrumental force in shaping the viewpoints of those who brought about the counter-culture movement during the 1960s, and setting an indelible imprint in our cultural fabric that transcended the era and can still be valued to this day.

On September 1971, he and his wife, Yoko Ono, arrived to the U.S. for what was expected to be a short trip; yet he became so enchanted with the country that he decided to stay indefinitely. Needless to say, this point in time was a turbulent one given the U.S.’s ongoing involvement in Vietnam which had taken the lives of countless young soldiers, and which had maimed and psychologically destroyed the lives of many others. As Lennon embraced the “American way of life,” he continued his legacy as an advocate for peace with a campaign that adorned the streets of many cities around the world- including his newly adopted home in New York City- with billboards and banners that read “War is Over! If you want it.”

Yet even a man as loved as he had enemies. Before fighting for his life on that dreadful winter day in which he met his murderer on the steps of his home, he put up an impressive fight in what turned out to be a prolonged legal battle against the- then called- Immigration and Naturalization Service. It was not until several years later that it was discovered that the U.S. government had a case open on him that comprised of 281 pages of files which the F.B.I. had coded as secret and deliberately withheld claiming they were documents pertaining to matters of national security. The files revealed that Lennon’s immigration status was being manipulated by a group of high-level government officials who conspired to silence him by having him deported from the U.S. The reason for this was that the power structure at the time was extremely paranoid of those they perceived to go against- or counter to- the traditional culture and values, counter to the war- and by extension the administration that supported it- and of course, John Lennon fit squarely under that criteria. He was a high profile figure, and they feared what he represented. Lennon spoke out for what he believed in and was not passive about his convictions; an attitude he shared with the young people that spearheaded the counterculture revolution, who were shifting society’s thought processes by being vocal about their common beliefs and overcoming social passivity.

The genesis of his five-year-long immigration battle was a letter from a U.S. Senator directed to the White House outlining Lennon’s plans for a concert tour in San Diego and Miami that would combine rock music with antiwar activism and which would simultaneously provide its attendees with the chance to register to vote. While this may seem patently inoffensive to us, then President Richard Nixon- the one and only man in our country’s history to resign for having been charged with committing federal crimes- was very much threatened by this flower-child. The reason being that 1972 was the year President Nixon was running for re-election, and it was also the year in which 18-20 year old Americans were for the first time given the right to vote. Moreover, because this new demographic was estimated at 11 million people who were probably all Beatle fans and mostly antiwar, a threatened Nixon resorted to foul-play in order to help secure his second term as president.

The argument put forth by Immigration officials at the time to deny his application for permanent residency in the U.S. was on account of having been charged in England with possession of cannabis and obstructing justice. Yet when the case made it to the Court of Appeals, Chief Judge Irving R. Kaufman ruled that the conviction “need not be recognized under U.S. Immigration law” and ordered INS to adjudicate Lennon’s residence case without considering the conviction. In spite of this favorable ruling that would have cleared the path for Lennon to acquire his immigration goal, the INS would not have it; they were set on denying him this privilege. And so it quickly became evident there were ulterior motives for keeping him out of the country. The immigration attorney handling the case, Leon Wildes, gauged the underlying prejudice and went on to file a petition based on his recognition as an “outstanding person in the arts or sciences” and supported the claim with reference letters written by several artists, including Andy Warhol, who attested to the fact. Yet because he received no timely response, he went on to file a suit in Federal District Court demanding a timely answer and claiming there was a government conspiracy to remove Lennon for political reasons. Because he was on an order to leave the U.S. in 60 days for much of 1972 and 1973, his lawyer kept extending his visa while the other case was pending. As it were, this case would lead to federal court on four different occasions.

The first lawsuit (Lennon v. Marks, 1972) resulted in securing the approval of Lennon as an “outstanding artist.” The second (Lennon v. Richardson, 73 Civ. 4476, 1973) was under the Freedom of Information Act, which provided information on the “non-priority program” for aliens who were permitted to remain in this country despite having a conviction for a serious drug offense. The third Federal District Court action (Lennon v. United States, 73 Civ. 4543, 1973) was a suit for selective prosecution. And the final one was an appeal of the Deportation Order to the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), which consequently led to another appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals (Lennon v. U.S. 527 F. 2nd 187, 1975), ending with the successful reversal of the BIA decision to deport Lennon.

In the midst of his legal battle, waving a white tissue that symbolized a flag of surrender, John and Yoko unveiled to the world their idea of “Nutopia” which they introduced as a conceptual country where “citizenship of the land could be declared by your awareness of Nutopia…[a land with] no boundaries, no passport, only people.” “He was clearly a man of major principle who understood that what was being done to him was a huge wrong and that it was an abuse of the law and he was willing to stand up and to shine the big light on it,” stated his attorney, Leon Wildes, with astonishment at his client’s ability to react in a lighthearted way even after five years of dealing with this blatant injustice. Mario Cuomo, former Governor of New York, had the following to say on the matter: “The case against John Lennon by the F.B.I. and I.N.S. and by President Nixon, was that John Lennon was disloyal to the United States of America and what it stood for. The real disloyalty was Nixon’s, Hoover’s, the INS and all the people who were implicated…because their perversion, distortion of the Constitution, their violation of the basic principles—that was the greatest disloyalty to this country.”

Fortunately, the arduous battle of monumental proportions that began with government officials’ conniving quest to find his Achilles’ heel to deport him, had a finale that was as symbolic as it was Hollywood-worthy in greatness. It was October 9th 1976- on the day of his birthday, and coincidentally also the day his wife gave birth to his newborn son- when John Lennon received the news that he had won the appeal, that he was free to stay and begin a new chapter of his life in this country. Sadly enough, not even five years after receiving his green card, John Lennon was shot to death- sending waves of shock and mourning around the world. His memorial was commemorated all over the world to the tune of “all we are saying, is give peace a chance”- a song he created while under Nixon’s hook.

Unfortunately, we are now hearing echoes of that perverse reactionary attitude towards young people and their ideals of peaceful prosperity in this country again. Just a few weeks ago, the Senate Majority Leader took the proposal of the “Dream Act” out of the Senate floor for consideration later. It seems that the same obstinate forces that blocked the path of John Lennon in his application for legal residence have regrouped to block the ascendancy of qualified and committed young people in our society. Let us not forget that the American Dream is not merely access to jobs and economic goods, but the guarantee that all hardworking residents of this blessed land will have fair opportunities to reach the American Dream. Can you imagine, if that wonderful man had lived more than five years after he had gotten his green card, what magnificent music and ideas he would have continued to bless us with? The same question could be posed for our thousands of undocumented youth whose potential could be fully unleashed only if they were given a chance to prove their own social worth through attaining legal status.

It is our hope that, in the end, they will also be able to free themselves from the daunting grip of the U.S. immigration agency and have the ability to write their own life stories with a happy ending. For the future is fiction and we are all writing the story of tomorrow and for generations to come- we are the authors of the future: imagine the possibilities.