Visas and drugs at the heart of Prince Harry hearing in Washington

Is Prince Harry ineligible for a US visa? American Justice on Tuesday heard an appeal from a conservative association that wants to know more about Prince Harry’s visa despite admitting to using drugs in the US.

Away from the London courthouse, where the Duke of Sussex testified the same day about the “hostility” of the press against him, a federal judge in Washington dedicated the hearing to the request filed by the Heritage Foundation precisely in the name of the “media interest”. “.

This highly influential organization in conservative circles requires, under freedom of information laws, the immigration file of the prince, who, despite the British royal family, settled in California in 2020 with his American wife Meghan Markle.

“I was offered a line, I’ve since taken a few more”

The youngest son of King Charles III “publicly admitted (…) a number of drug-related crimes in the United States and abroad,” she notes in her address. However, she adds, “U.S. law generally prohibits the entry of such persons” into the country.

The case is about Prince Harry, “but mostly about the Department of Homeland Security and its respect for the law,” his lawyer Samuel Dewey told Judge Carl Nichols. He added that this topic “is of great interest to the media.” “A person’s visa is… confidential information,” Department of Homeland Security Attorney John Bardot told him.

The petition does not violate the prince’s privacy as he “spoke and wrote extensively” about his drug use, Samuel Dewey said as he left court. In his memoir, published in January, the prince admitted to using cannabis, psychotropic drugs and cocaine in the United Kingdom, Lesotho and on American soil.

In 2002, “I was offered a fishing rod at someone’s country house during a hunting weekend, since then I have taken several more,” he wrote, in particular, in Le Suppléant, where he also tells how he “swallowed” hallucinogenic mushrooms at a party in Los Angeles in 2016.

“Psychedelic drugs helped me a little too. Took a few years for fun (…) then for therapeutic, medical purposes,” he adds, imagining himself as a young “unfortunate man” ready to try anything to “change the status quo.”

Requested Documents

However, the Heritage Foundation notes that other individuals, including soccer player Maradona or singer Amy Winehouse, have been denied entry to American soil due to their drug use.

In particular, she wants to have access to the US entry form, where each candidate must indicate whether he has ever used drugs. So far, she has faced refusals from three structures of the ministry, but has not yet received a response from the leadership of the latter.

While acknowledging that these documents “may be of some interest to the public”, the government felt that the mainstream American media had not looked into the prince’s legal status and that there was no need to act urgently.

After very technical discussions, Judge Carl Nichols asked the administration to see if departmental leadership can make a decision or speed up the processing of the request by next Tuesday. Otherwise, “I will make a decision,” he said, emphasizing that at this stage it would not concern the merits of the case, but the need to expedite the consideration of the requested documents.