Video: 'John Lennon vs. FBI & Nixon - CBS Evening News - March 22, 1983' (Apr. 18, 1972, at 0:55-1:10)
(Tuesday, April 18, 1972) — Former Beatle John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono, who say they are still searching for her child, won a two-week’s delay today in deportation proceedings against them in New York.
Ira Fieldsteel, special inquiry officer of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, granted them a postponement until May 2, 1972, to allow Lennon and his wife time to make further applications for continued stay in this country and pursue other matters, including an action in England to expunge a narcotics conviction against Lennon.
The conviction is the major obstacle to the rock musician’s obtaining permanent residency status in the United States.
Lennon, who was convicted of possession of marijuana in 1968, insists that it was planted on him by a British police sergeant and he said proceedings are underway in England to expunge that conviction.
The couple overstayed their vistors’ visa time. The Lennons say that deportation would be a disaster because the court decree that gives Mrs. Lennon custody of her 8-year-old child by a former husband requires her to remain in this country to retain the custody.
After today’s 30-minute hearing, Lennon said that “umpteen other people” in the music business have similar marijuana convictions but are treated differently and are allowed to come to the United States for extended stays.
Video: 'John Lennon rare Interview with Geraldo Rivera'
Leon Wildes, the lawyer for the couple, suggested that the real reason for the deportation proceeding was to “silence the expression” of antiwar sentiments expressed by the couple.
Although Yoko Ono legally has temporary custody of her child, Kyoko, the Lennons are still trying to find her. They say the child is hidden somewhere by Yoko’s former husband, an American.
The door is still open for the couple to sever their cases. That would allow Yoko, who has no conviction record and who has status here as the former wife of an American, to remain in the United States while Lennon undergoes deportation proceedings alone.
If that course were taken, Yoko said, “I would have to choose between my child and my husband, and that really is unfair.”
Immediately after the hearing, Lennon and Ono were interviewed by Geraldo Rivera for Eyewitness News on WABC-TV in New York about their battles to stay in the U.S. and regain custody Yoko’s daughter, Kyoko, from her first marriage.
When John and Yoko Left the INS building, they faced an army of newspapers and TV reporters. Asked why is it so important for him and Yoko to stay in America, John states: “Well… the judge who gave us temporary custody of Kyoko said we must bring the child up in the continent of America, and we’re quite happy with that. Yoko has been here half her life. She was educated here … fifteen years she’s lived here. She has an American child, she was married to an American citizen and now she is married to an English citizen … and that’s caused all the trouble. But we love to be here.”
