A conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to answer inquiries regarding Prince Harry's admitted drug use and the visa that he was granted. The US government will appear in court on June 6. The foundation is demanding the US government make the 38-year-old royal’s visa application public. So far, the US authorities have refused to do so.
The director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, Nile Gardiner, said the hearing will take place in DC federal court and will be open to the press. He added that the hearing will be a “very significant development.”
“It significantly raises the stakes here,” he told the Telegraph. “I think that so far the Biden administration has been stonewalling the freedom.”
It is standard procedure for anyone seeking either a US visa or permanent resident status to answer questions pertaining to past drug use. US immigration law holds that a visa applicant who is “determined to be a drug abuser” is deemed “inadmissible” — although immigration officials can make exceptions.
Prince Harry details his use of marijuana, cocaine, and psychedelic mushrooms in his tell-all memoir, Spare, and he has openly discussed his past drug use while doing promotions for his book.
“Widespread and continuous media coverage has surfaced the question of whether DHS properly admitted the Duke of Sussex in light of the fact that he has publicly admitted to the essential elements of a number of drug offenses in both the United States and abroad,” the Heritage Foundation’s complaint reads.
The think tank is posing the question that the Duke of Sussex’s immigration status in the US should be “reconsidered” considering the revelations touted in his book.
The Heritage Foundation argues that it is in the public interest to know exactly what Prince Harry wrote in his original application, and how that application was handled by the Biden administration.
“Did DHS in fact look the other way, play favorites, or fail to appropriately respond to any potential false statements by Prince Harry?” the think tank said in a statement Tuesday.
Comments / 3