Michael Wildes, born November 27, 1964, at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, was raised in Forest Hills, Queens, in a Modern Orthodox Jewish home. He is the son of Leon Wildes (1933-2024), founding partner of Wildes & Weinberg P.C. and renowned immigration lawyer who represented John Lennon, and Ruth Schoenwalter Wildes (d. 1995), active in the Jewish community. He is the brother to Rabbi Mark Wildes, founder of Manhattan Jewish Experience. Wildes attended Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, where he met his wife, and currently serves as an adjunct professor of immigration law. He married immigration attorney Amy Messer in 1990, and they have four children, raised in Englewood, New Jersey. From 1989 to 1993, he served as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, handling cases such as the corruption trial of Congressman Mario Biaggi. In 1993, he joined the family firm Wildes & Weinberg P.C., becoming managing partner in 2010. The firm is a prominent U.S. immigration law practice, where he has represented high-profile clients including defectors (Mohammed al Khilewi, Janosh Neumann), celebrities (Pelé, Gisele Bündchen, Boy George, Melania Trump), and others like Kwame James ('shoe bomber hero'). He is the author of Safe Haven in America: Battles to Open the Golden Door (2018). Politically, Wildes served as Englewood City Councilman (1998-2003), president pro tempore (2000), and Mayor of Englewood, NJ (36th: 2004-2010; 38th: 2019-present, re-elected 2021 for three-year term, 2024 for four-year term). A Democratic Party member, he was appointed to the NJ Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on Immigration (2007). He is a certified EMT (1992-present), former NYPD Auxiliary Officer (1982-1992), and serves on boards including Boys Town Jerusalem, WhyHunger, and Manhattan Jewish Experience. In 2009, he led rallies against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's planned stay at a Trump property in Englewood, criticizing the security and cleanup costs.