page_title: Michael Wildes
section_title: Wildes and Weinberg PC
hierarchical_section_title: Michael Wildes / Law career / Wildes and Weinberg PC
caption_attribution_description: This is a picture of w:Michael Wildes with w:Jimena Navarrete, taken in 2010.
context_page_description: Michael Jay Wildes is an American immigration lawyer and politician who serves as the 38th and current Mayor of Englewood, New Jersey. He previously served as the 36th Mayor of Englewood from 2004 to 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, Wildes served as a Federal Prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York and as a City Councilman for Englewood before he was elected mayor in 2003. He was reelected in 2006 and again in 2018. A nationally recognized authority on American immigration law, Wildes has been called "attorney to the stars" for his success in defending the immigration rights of his clients, many of whom are celebrities. Wildes is the managing partner of the law firm Wildes and Weinberg PC. He also serves as immigration counsel to Davidoff Hutcher and Citron LLP, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
context_section_description: Wildes joined Wildes and Weinberg PC, a law firm that specializes in immigration law, in 1993. He was made managing partner in 2010.
  Al-Khilewi case
  Early on in his career at Wildes and Weinberg, Wildes represented Mohammed al Khilewi, a high-level Saudi Arabian diplomat who sought Wildes' counsel to effectively defect to the United States in 1994. Al-Khilewi had leaked thousands of documents to the FBI that described crimes against humanity, corruption, and financial support for militant Islamic groups by the Saudi royal family, and was hunted by Saudi intelligence agents who followed him to New York after he defected. Wildes obtained political asylum for al-Khilewi, who now lives in hiding in the New York City area.
  Roush case
  In 1995, Wildes represented Patricia Roush, an American mother whose two daughters had been abducted and taken to Saudi Arabia by her ex-husband. Roush had married a Saudi Arabian national named Khalid Al-Gheshayan, in 1978. In 1979, Gheshayan was arrested in the United States for domestic violence (assaulting Roush and their newborn daughter), drunk driving, battery, and vandalism. He was deported to Saudi Arabia the same year. Roush divorced Gheshayan in 1985 and obtained sole custody of her daughters. However, Gheshayan protested the custody ruling in 1986 and received some visitation rights.
  During his second visit with his two daughters in January 1986, Gheshayan kidnapped the two girls, then aged 7 and 3, and flew them to Saudi Arabia. Roush petitioned the United States Department of State for nine years in an attempt to bring her daughters back to America, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Wildes offered to represent Roush pro bono after he met her in 1995. Wildes negotiated a deal with Saudi diplomats that allowed Roush to visit Saudi Arabia on a visa, and allowed her to visit her children in Riyadh. U.S. marines accompanied Roush throughout her trip. She was allowed to see her children for two hours during her trip in 1995, and has not seem them since. Wildes said of the case, "Our government has given up on her plight. The American government cares more about its oil and its military agenda than its daughters. A phone call from President Clinton to King Faud would have those girls on a plane in one day. He won't do it. He and Bush and Reagan turned it over to their staffs, who do nothing but give it the runaround, writing letters, putting up a façade instead of going to the Saudi government and working out an arrangement so the girls could spend equal time here and there."
  Al-Sayegh case
  In 1997, Wildes represented Hani Abdel Rahim al-Sayegh, a Saudi Arabian citizen who had been wrongfully accused of involvement in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing. In June 1996, a housing complex in Khobar, Saudi Arabia that was being used to host American military personnel was destroyed by a truck bomb, killing 19 people and injuring 498. Al-Sayegh was suspected of acting as the driver and lookout for the perpetrators of the attack. Wildes arranged for Al-Sayegh to be transferred to the United States after he was found in Canada, in 1997.
  A U.S. court later sealed the fact that when Al-Sayegh was brought to the United States he made an agreement with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to plead guilty to an earlier, smaller, and unsuccessful terrorist attack, and to provide information about the Khobar Towers bombing. However, public records reveal that Al-Sayegh later told US officials that he had been in Iran during the Khobar attack and that he had no knowledge of any of the details surrounding the attack. Wildes acted as Al-Sayegh's immigration attorney. Media sources indicated that Wildes argued that Al-Sayegh had lied about his knowledge of the attacks out of fear of being deported to Saudi Arabia, where he likely would have been tortured and killed. Wildes also told The New York Times that he suspected Al-Sayegh had been given to the United States to appease American law enforcement officials who had theretofore been unable to access any Khobar bombing suspects.
  In April 1997, American government 
caption: Wildes with Jimena Navarrete, winner of Miss Universe 2010, after Wildes obtained an O visa for Navarrete.
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