The Biden-Harris administration’s effort to keep Prince Harry’s U.S. visa application from being made public prevailed this week as a judge ruled against a suit launched by the Heritage Foundation, which claimed the decision was “suspicious” and vowed to appeal the ruling.
Questions remain around the lawfulness of the wayward British Prince’s immigration status in the United States as Judge Carl Nichols sided with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to keep the Duke of Sussex’s visa application private.
The conservative Heritage Foundation launched a suit against the Biden-Harris administration to unseal the application after the woke Royal admitted in his memoir Spare to have taken illegal drugs, including cocaine, marijuana, and magic mushrooms.
While having a history of illicit drug use does not necessarily prevent people from obtaining a visa, lying on an application could result in deportation and a ban from applying for citizenship.
In a court document obtained by the Daily Mail, Judge Nichols reportedly said that the court agreed with the DHS that “the Duke’s privacy interest outweighs any public interest.”
The judge added that Harry’s public admissions of drug use did not take away his right to keeping his immigration status private, noting that the Duke did not publicly disclose “the following facts”, after which the document was redacted.
The Heritage Foundation has argued that the public has an interest in seeing if the government bends immigration rules for high-status individuals, such as the British Prince, who moved to California with his wife in 2020 to pursue money-making ventures after shirking their Royal duties.
Responding to the ruling, the executive director of the Oversight Project at the Heritage Foundation, Mike Howell said according to Newsweek: “The Prince Harry scandal just got a lot more suspicious. While our case is far from over as we explore appeal, I’d say that these very curious redactions point to something serious afoot.
“Americans deserve an immigration system with both secure borders and also fairly applied rules for high-profile immigrants like Harry.”
“It certainly appears that Harry was given special treatment… and now we know it for something so serious that it involves extensive redactions.
“Americans will know the full story soon enough. Perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Markle will tell us what’s beneath the redactions on their next Netflix special.”
While the Duke of Sussex has received support from the Biden-Harris administration in the suit over his visa application, former President Donald Trump has said that if he returns to the White House, Harry will be “on his own” in the fight.
“I wouldn’t protect him. He betrayed the Queen. That’s unforgivable. He would be on his own if it was down to me,” Trump said earlier this year, adding: “I think they [the Biden administration] have been too gracious to him after what he has done.”