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A federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security submit documents related to Prince Harry’s visa for court review after the department refused to hand them over to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Heritage Foundation has sued the department, claiming it has the right to see the documents as part of an investigation into whether Prince Harry had been improperly allowed to reside in the United States, given his confessions in his 2023 memoir and elsewhere in that he had used cocaine. and other drugs.
The foundation had sought the documents specifically to investigate how the prince had been admitted, since certain visas with which he could have entered the United States require applicants to answer questions about past drug use and legal violations related to the drugs.
Judge Carl J. Nichols of U.S. District Court in Washington ordered the department to submit the documents in question for confidential review to determine whether they should be disclosed in any way.
The possibility of the prince concealing drug use when applying for a visa could have immigration consequences, and any exemptions granted to him would generally have been excluded due to the nature of the drug use he described in public interviews and in his memoirs.
“Continuing extensive media coverage has raised the question of whether DHS properly admitted the Duke of Sussex in light of the fact that he has publicly admitted the essential elements of a series of drug offenses both in the United States and in abroad,” the foundation said. the lawyers wrote in their original complaint.
The complaint cited numerous other cases in which celebrities and public figures such as soccer star Diego Maradona and singer Amy Winehouse had immigration problems or were denied entry for alleged drug use.
The legal dispute began in May after the department returned the Heritage Foundation’s request, deeming it “too broad in scope.” He did not immediately deny the request, but directed the panel to resubmit it and identify more specific records for consideration.
Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, had been living in California for some time before their memoirs were published, and have expressed interest upon becoming a US citizen.