US refuses to release details of Prince Harry’s visa application after drug use revelations citing his ‘right to privacy’ despite his life in the limelight and a six-part Netflix documentary with wife Meghan Markle
- The Department of Homeland Security has for a second time turned down a Freedom of Information request to reveal the material
- The DHS had rejected an initial application. It said even though Harry was a ‘public figure’ that does not mean he would ‘forfeit all rights of privacy’
The US government has refused to reveal details of Prince Harry’s American visa due to his ‘right to privacy’ documents have revealed.
The Department of Homeland Security has for a second time turned down a Freedom of Information request to reveal the material.
It was made by the Heritage Foundation think-tank to see if Harry lied in immigration paper-work about past drug-taking.
He admitted to consuming illegal substances in his memoir Spare and his Netflix slow, a fact that usually bars US entry unless there is special dispensation.
The DHS had rejected an initial application. It said even though Harry was a ‘public figure’ that does not mean he would ‘forfeit all rights of privacy.’
Prince Harry appearing at the High Court in London. The US government has now refused to reveal details of Prince Harry’s American visa due to his ‘right to privacy,’ documents have revealed
This is the section of the visa application that Prince Harry would have had to fill in order to get into the United States
The royal couple are pictured together in September 2017
Prince Harry declined to comment.
In June, it was reported that Lawyers for the Heritage Foundation went to court to try and force the Department of Homeland Security to speed up its response to their Freedom of Information Act request about the Duke of Sussex.
Judge Carl Nichols refused to issue an injunction, urging the U.S. government to give an answer to the conservative think-tank one way or the other.
Its lead attorney Samuel Dewey shared a letter from DHS senior director Jimmy Wolfrey in which he refused to confirm or deny that had the Duke’s papers on file.
In an angry statement posted online, the Heritage Foundation’s Nile Gardiner hit out at the decision.
‘This argument makes no sense, but is not surprising coming from the zero transparency Biden Administration,’ Gardiner said.
Prince Harry admitted to taking drugs in his memoir Spare, which was released at the start of the year
‘The Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to stonewall the Heritage Foundation’s Freedom of Information request are unacceptable, and we will be contesting their position,’ the former senior aide to ex-British PM Margaret Thatcher added.
In his book Spare, Harry admitted to previously taking marijuana, cocaine and psychedelic mushrooms.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have positioned themselves as public figures in the U.S. since stepping back from the British Royal Family in 2020.
An admission of drug use does not automatically ban you from the United States.
Any denial of entry can be overturned after an in-person interview at a US consulate or official immigration office, where a waiver can be issued.
There is a history of authorities releasing immigration documents about public figures.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website has an electronic reading room which contains the files of some celebrities.
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