Video: 'John Lennon Interview Immigration and Naturalization Services, New York March 16, 1972 part 2' (video is actually from May 12, 1972)

(Friday, May 12, 1972) — A parade of show business and artistic witnesses, including one who saw ex-Beatle John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, as having an “almost square” lifestyle, testified today in New York that cultural reasons should prohibit the couple’s deportation.

“I would say they are almost square as far as their moral and social behavior is concerned,” said Norman Seaman, a concert producer. “They live like middle-aged people.”

The couple, facing deportation for overstaying their visas, are seeking permanent residency. And although they have been recognized by the Immigration and Naturalization Service as artists whose presence is of cultural benefit to the United States, permanent residency appears unavailable for Lennon, INS District Director Sol Marks explained, because of the former Beatle’s 1968 British conviction for possession of marijuana.

Lennon’s attorney, Leon Wildes, argued that Lennon was convicted of possessing “cannabis resin,” not marijuana. Wildes was supported by Dr. Lester Grinspoon, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard, who maintained there was a difference between the two. Cannabis resin is hashish.

“Sure it’s a technicality,” Wildes commented after the hearing at 20 West Broadway was adjourned until May 17, 1972. “But Immigration is trying to get them out on a technicality.”

Wildes also produced an alien registration card bearing the name of Yoko Ono Cox. He said it showed “Mrs. Lennon may be a permanent resident of the United States.”

Mrs. Lennon’s distaste for the name stems from her inability to locate her daughter, Kyoko, 8, who has been spirited off by the child’s father and her former husband, producer Anthony Cox, in defiance of a Texas temporary court order. Because the order stipulates the child must be raised in the United States, Mrs. Lennon has charged that the Immigration action is forcing her to choose between her child and her husband.

Ken Dewey, artist and chairman of the National Committee for John and Yoko, produced a folder containing 150 letters, including one from Mayor John Lindsay, which urged that the couple be allowed to stay here.

Thomas P. F. Hoving, director of the Metropolitan Museum, also lauded the Lennons for their “high artistic importance.” And television talk show host Dick Cavett praised the Lennons for “the good example they set” for young people.