The global media circus that surrounds Prince Harry should force the Biden administration to hand over his U.S. immigration records, a federal court has heard.
Attorneys for the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank said Harry is a major public figure in the U.S. and that Americans had the right to know about his immigration status.
They clashed with U.S. government lawyers at a 75-minute hearing in Washington D.C. earlier on Tuesday.
Heritage had sued the Department for Homeland Security in a bid to fast-track their request to put the Duke of Sussex‘s visa application into the public domain.
Prince Harry arrives at the High Court in London earlier on Tuesday as part of a separate court case
Samuel Dewey, the U.S. attorney who is trying to get the Biden administration eventually release Prince Harry’s visa files
Samuel Dewey, representing Heritage, said the matter had received ‘widespread and exceptional media attention’ which prompted ‘questions about government integrity.’
John Bardo, the lawyer defending the U.S. government, claimed that the coverage came from ‘obscure publications’ in the U.K. and should be ignored.
But many of the news articles cited were by British-owned outlets, including DailyMail.com, with millions of readers in the United States, Dewey argued
‘We don’t think that counts as obscure or niche,’ he told Judge Carl Nichols, a Donald Trump appointee.
The Heritage Foundation wants to know how the 38-year-old British royal answered questions about his past drug use when entering the country in the U.S.
It came after Prince Harry confessed to taking an array of illegal substances in his recent memoir ‘Spare’.
Under US law, admission of drug taking can be grounds to dismiss a visa application.
‘We are not a voyeuristic fishing expedition here. The focus is did the DHS comply with the law?’ said Heritage lawyer Dewey after the court hearing.
Heritage lawyers had been seeking an injunction to force the DHS to respond to their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request over the duke’s immigration papers.
Judge Nichols spoke of his ‘frustration’ that some DHS officials had yet to respond, calling Tuesday’s hearing ‘completely unnecessary’.
‘I am somewhat frustrated about being asked to resolve an issue that is not even close to the merits of the case,’ he fumed.
The judge gave DHS a week to indicate whether it would be willing in principle to respond to, or expedite, the request for information by the think tank.
Nile Gardiner, the director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, said the case was part of a personal vendetta against the Duke of Sussex.
‘At the end of the day, this is about accountability, transparency and openness on behalf of the US administration with regard to an immigration application by a high profile individual,’ he said.
‘(Prince Harry) is actively engaged on a number of causes, has done multiple high profile interviews, has taken part in a Netflix documentary that’s been watched by tens of millions of Americans – so he’s a big figure.
‘This is really ultimately about US immigration law, ensuring that it is applied fairly and equally to everybody.’
Nile Gardiner, a former aide to ex-British PM Margaret Thatcher, said Heritage wanted to ensure that U.S. immigration law was being applied fairly
The D.C. hearing came after Prince Harry gave evidence to English judges his case against the publisher of British tabloid the Daily Mirror.
He is suing Mirror Group Newspapers for damages, claiming journalists were linked to unlawful methods of information gathering.
Prince Harry arrives at the High Court in London today as part of a separate court case
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
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were last seen in the UK together at the funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth II last September, months before ‘Spare’ was published
The details contained in Harry’s visa application could, the Heritage Foundation argues, spell trouble for his future life in the United States.
An admission of drug use does not automatically ban you from the United States for life.
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.
This is the section of the visa application that Prince Harry would have had to fill in order to get into the United States
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.
The records for the late musicians George Michael and John Lennon are online, as well as those for the mother of U.S. vice-president Kamala Harris.
Since arriving in the country in 2020, Harry has struck up friendships with prominent Democratic Party figures such as former president Barack Obama.
He is also close to major Democratic donors including Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry prompting fears that he may become an ‘unwitting pawn in a highly political game’.
DailyMail.com has approached the Department of Homeland Security and a spokesman for the Duke of Sussex for comment.
