A few weeks ago, the Mail embraced a new line of attack against Prince Harry: his immigration status in America. To be fair, the British media (particularly the Mail) has been obsessed with the idea that they can somehow get America to deport Harry on a technicality, like the man isn’t white, Christian, rich and married to an American citizen. Harry can afford the best immigration lawyers in California, and I strongly suspect that he’s already years into his American naturalization process. But, the Mail’s latest thing is that Harry wrote about using drugs in Spare, therefore he can and should be deported as a “drug abuser.” The Mail has convinced the Heritage Foundation, an ultra-right-wing American thinktank, to back up their delusions. The Heritage Foundation has now filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get their hands on Harry’s visa application. Like… that’s not the way it works, correct? You can’t just FOIA your way into getting your hands on a random person’s visa application.
Prince Harry has been urged to be ‘totally transparent’ and release details of his US visa application or risk becoming a ‘political pawn’ over his past drug use. US immigration authorities have until April 12 to respond to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request filed by a leading American think-tank which is seeking to determine how the Duke of Sussex was allowed to enter the States after openly admitting using a variety of substances in the past, including marijuana, cocaine and magic mushrooms.
The issue of immigration is expected to become one of the main focuses of the 2024 presidential election, with Republicans attacking President Joe Biden for his lax border controls. And there are fears that Harry’s friendships with prominent Democratic Party figures such as former president Barack Obama and major Democratic donors including Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry could see him become an ‘unwitting pawn in a highly political game’.
Last night, in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, senior lawyer Samuel Dewey at conservative think-tank the Heritage Foundation, which has filed a 127-page FoI request to see the Duke’s application, said: ‘It is in the public interest to know how Prince Harry answered the drug question. If he has been honest and open about his drug use, and there is no reason to believe he has not been, it could well be that he ticked the “yes” box, in which case he would need a waiver to be granted a visa to be admitted into the States. That means he would have had to be interviewed in person and someone would have had to grant him a waiver. We are simply asking who granted that waiver.’
Mr Dewey added: ‘An admission of drug use doesn’t automatically ban you for ever. There is a waiver process and a lot of people get a waiver on a case-by-case basis. If Prince Harry was given a waiver, who authorised it? Was the correct protocol followed? It’s something the American people deserve to know…There is no suggestion Prince Harry did anything wrong and, if he was granted a waiver, he may not be aware of any political strings that may have been pulled, if indeed they were. But there is a danger he could become an unwitting pawn in an issue which has become a political hot potato.’
Reports in the US have suggested Harry was admitted on an ‘O’ visa – given to people of extraordinary ability.
The question on the visa application is about “drug abusers” and “drug addicts.” Not to parse, but they’re trying to get Harry on a technicality, so let’s be technical about it: he’s not a drug abuser, nor is he a drug addict. He has used drugs recreationally in the past, which he wrote about in his bestselling memoir. He has never been arrested on a drug charge. He would not need a waiver, and even if he did, it would still be none of the Heritage Foundation’s f–king business, nor is Harry’s visa application in the public’s interest. If the “immigrants are coming to get you and eat your brains” crowd believes that making Prince Harry some kind of poster boy for their racist public policy, they are going to be shocked by how many conservative Americans think Harry is “the good kind” of immigrant.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
83 Responses to “The Heritage Foundation FOIA-requested Prince Harry’s visa application”
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There’s no indication he did anything wrong or lied in any way, and plenty of people get waivers all the time, but we need know who granted him the waiver because of course we want to accuse a random governmental employee of not doing their job and look into their background and harass them if possible. We also want to be able to take every question that he ever answered on the Visa application to be able to write 700 articles about for the next 3 years because we don’t have any information about him anymore. There that’s a more honest reading of the article
It is absolutely a fishing expedition for information that the DM will use. Not sure how this can be combatted but hopefully it can.
The Heritage Foundation is a private entity and has no standing here. Good luck invading a random person’s privacy.
They have no legal right to access this information. There is nothing to combat.
Ya gotta laugh. “Prince Harry is being urged to be ‘totally transparent’ and release details about his visa application..”. lol By whom? Those that know that he doesn’t have to explain diddly squat to. Those that know the FOIA is a fishing expedition and will be told diddly squat? What’s going to happen on April 13th when the deadline passes? Oh, right, he automatically becomes some kind of “political pawn”.
Will US Customs be in super secret double probation kind of trouble with the Heritage Foundation if they don’t release information they are not legally required to release?
Yeah, the Fail is going nuclear against Harry now because of the lawsuit. They’ll stop at nothing to destroy Harry.
Time to look into how Melania Trump got a “genius” visa and easy way to citizenship with it.
I second that. I’m very curious to find out the details of her application and Niles Gardiner’s while we’re at it. He is attached to the Heritage Foundation but his Twitter feed is almost entirely attacks on H&M. The dude belongs on a FBI watch list of obsessed people tbh.
These people are out of control. Let’s talk about Melania’s visa then, shall we? She has no extraordinary talents yet, here she is
Yeah, let’s first clear up how Melania and her parents’ got their visas and citizenship. After the HF publishes that in detail, then let’s look into the various partnerships the HF has. And also why a foreign country is so invested in how the US handles Harry’s visa: a foreign country that is ready to fly immigrants to Rwanda. And has tried to deny (somewhat successfully) citizenship to members of the Commonwealth born in Britain.
Let’s be clear here – “a foreign country” has no interest in how the US handles Harry’s visa, the UK government isn’t involved and doesn’t care. I think this Tory government is appalling and I want it and the Royal Family ended yesterday, but this is a crusade of the press, not the country.
Melania lied under oath claiming she had a degree in architecture that she doesn’t have. Did she also made that claim on any of her immigration/naturalization paperwork?
Political theater. Show runs forever, yet there’s nothing to see.
I want to see Elon Musk’s Visas and citizenship docs.
Yeah, known drug user Musk. Will the Heritage bros go after him next?
With video evidence!
Also not their business who the employee was who conducted PH’s interview, so they can harrass and make that person’s life a misery.
Notice the American media isn’t reporting this at all, because nobody cares.
Exactly. This is the white male version of Emily Giffin. Just because they are male doesn’t mean they aren’t Anglophiles and secretly want to be royalty.
I guess it’s different for visitors. In my case, to get an ESTA I had to answer this question: “Have you ever violated any law related to possessing, using, or distributing illegal drugs?”.
@TikiChica, it’s different because they are different things. I haven’t looked at the ESTA app. Do remember that you brought this up on a different post. Maybe, just maybe, that as a high profile figure, a military veteran and an all around globally known good guy..just saying.
This is ESTA info. You experience would be very different than Harry’s. Much like, “hypothetically”, if I were to go through these things versus a sibling who has already been vetted with high security clearance. How did William handle the supposed questions on his visas for entry into the states? Did he lie? Did William say he never, ever, ever did illegal drugs ever in his lifetime? Did William say that at no point in his life he held in his hand illegal drugs or snort them through his nose illegal drugs? Kate too. It might be different for visitors.lol
Those Heritage bozos are just trying to fund raise from loonies. Harry’s an IR1 spouse of an AmCit—he is not a drug addict, isn’t going anywhere and no one is getting the private personal info in his visa application. The Mail trying to muscle Harry in the US, however, is a sight to see.
They have run out of stories from their Samantha lawsuit so they have to keep finding new ways to get headlines and clicks, even when they are the ones creating the ‘news’.
It’s giving crazy ex stalker vibes. They need to let this man go, he’s never going back
It’s disturbing. the british press really needs to focus on their own issues.
@beccs, I find it somewhat amazing that these muppets are allowing themselves to be manipulated by the DF!! Harry has NEVER been convicted of anything at all, let alone drug related!!, have they really sunk that low that they are trying to go after a man whose one aim in life is to help others and a war veteran to boot. Christ the world has become a very sad, nasty place. Let Harry and Megan live their lives in peace!! And while we are at it, let’s take a closer look at the people involved in this witch hunt
This exactly defines things. You don’t get to leave me 👀👀 is totally their vibe
https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/eamimzFpKrsOTqOHD9jDyw–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtoPTY2Ng–/https://s.yimg.com/os/en-AU/homerun/y7.beau/eb04f5870fabfd7c4e10ec3d3515f34d
LEAVE HARRY ALONE !!!
How utterly craven and desperate these people have become in pursuit of ANYTHING they can write about and abuse Harry with. I doubt they are convinced they can get him deported, but it’s just another stick to beat him with and to try and turn Americans against him.
But look, even the MAGATS would have a hard time working up some anger because this is a white man, spending his millions in the US and making US companies richer AND he’s employing dozens of people.
ETA: I hope we get a message soon from Harry that he’s becoming a naturalized US citizen and will have dual citizenship.
Dear British media and BRF,
He’s *still* not that into you. Even if you get him deported from the USA, he’s not coming back to you. Y’all just look desperate and deranged. Stop it.
Sincerely,
Everyone
I would definitely add my signature to this letter.
I noticed at the checkouts at the local drug store, grocery store this weekend that the trash US weeklies (the ones my grandma like to read in the 80’s, that tend to always feature stories about aliens, alien babies, death bed pictures of famous people and wild conspiracy stories) feature stories about Harry on their front page, blatantly calling him a druggie and criminal.
It’s almost like the rags on both side of the pond, and groups beating the drums for facism, nationalism and bigotry are all reading from the same playbook … hmm why is that do you think?
Could it be that the rich and powerful are threatened by him, his family (m & the kids), what they represent (rejecting control by the powerful, bigoted, and destructive), the mere fact that they exist, are thriving personally and financially, are working on social justice, supporting safety nets and other efforts to reduce suffering and injustice and aren’t under the thumb of or beholden to facists, oligarchs, the Uber rich and their propaganda machines?
All those junk tabloids are controlled by the same type of conservative freaks. Better to talk about Harry than Dear Leader Trump being indicted and hopefully carted off to jail.
No way the FOIA request is granted as it’s not a matter of public interest. As someone said above, people like Melania should be much higher up the public interest list. And am sure he’s already applied for (if not received) his green card at this point. On the deportation side, my understanding of this area of law from my practice days is that under the Immigration and National Act he would have to have been convicted of an eligible drug offence in the US to be deported, which he clearly has not been. So basically as everyone has said above, it’s a load of crap.
At what point do these press barons get some sort of sanction against harassment? Why should some news organization be allowed to fund nuisance lawsuits, support an ongoing carnival of aggrieved family members mouthing off on television, deploy malicious ‘opinion’ pieces of varying degrees of active insult, slander and dog whistle violence, and internet bots deployed to actively downvote and denigrate their projects and harass businesses and people who associate with people who they are actively engaged in legal proceedings?
When is an outfit like Frontline going to make a decent documentary to layout all this BS for what it is?
Yeah, you would think that at least until the trial is over there would be a gag rule for the papers being sued to report on the person suing them.
Can any lawyers comment on this?
i guess when people stop embolden them by not clicking, or paying attention on crazy gossip. Not gonna happen anytime soon as we can see on this website.
I’m talking about harassment with malice a forethought. This is not “crazy gossip”, its a sustained international campaign of harassment against the Sussexes, even after they left England, by two different news organizations that have been and are being taken to court by this couple.
Concocting items of character assassination and insult is not reporting news. These companies are platforming the sister in law and the dad on English and Australian and now American media to say disparaging things about H&M, trying to get Harry’s visa information and insisting he will be deported, misrepresenting things he said in his book and paying for social media bots to try to bring harm to their professional reputations and projects. These actions are designed to make the Sussexes have to play whack a mole incessantly, expending money on these BS lawsuits and having all this negativity heaped upon H&M and the people, companies and organizations who work with them. They are trying to kneecap and sabotage H&M’s projects. These businesses are purposefully trying make life unsafe for H&M by ginning up hate and resentment towards them. With litigation happening between the Mail and Murdoch with Harry and Meghan having won her case against the Mail these news organizations should not be allowed to target H&M this way.
THIS
Not only is there no such drug question on the visa application, the question of whether you’ve used drugs in the part when it comes to citizenship is to totally irrelevant. So this “heritage foundation” is simply using Harry’s name to bring attention to their organization, nothing else! When Harry talks about harassment, it’s not only him. Now they want to know who interviewed Harry, so they can harass that person. Obtaining any type of visa application would be illegal and the Mail knows that. This is a new low for the british media and their pawns and they think using Oprah and Tyler to fuel their qanon conspiracy theories will make it a public interest amongst conservatives but even conservatives don’t care, they’re more worried about Trump’s indictment than Harry’s past drug use. The british thinks everyone is as obsessed with H&M as they are.
A few weeks ago I saw a twitter user (who claims to be neutral) said that Harry lied on his visa application and will probably be deported. She had no proof that he lied just that the US would NEVER let him in if he said he used drugs in the past. When you bring up Keith Richards (who was arrested for drug possession in the UK and has lived in the US for decades) they get quiet. Harry is a privileged white man. He will be fine, they are just desperate for him to come back. They know what they are stuck with and it really bothers them.
Exactly, Keith Richards, rich dude married to Patti from Staten Island with two AmCit kids, isn’t going anywhere and neither is Harry.
Wondering when they’ll send one on Elon Musk
The premise that “the American people deserve to know” is just bonkers. What is the argument they could possibly make that this is public information? Harry is a private resident. He’s not a politician or public servant in any way. And in fact, like most immigrants, he pays into a system he doesn’t even benefit from in many ways! I hope the judge throws this back in the Heritage Fdn’s nasty faces and tells them and the British tabloids not to come back. FOIA requests don’t include personal information like visa application or medical info etc.
I really hope Harry’s lawsuits put those trash papers out of business. Enough is enough.
That is the excuse they use in the UK for constantly invading the privacy of the royals. Because they are taxpayer funded. They stubbornly think they can use the same excuse with Harry living in the US. It’s all they know.
Poor Harry naively thought that removing that excuse and funding themselves would stop them. It clearly didn’t.
Yes, that “American people deserve to know” line really irritates me. As if the USA isn’t the biggest consumer of mind altering drugs in the world.
Puh-leez, don’t tell the American citizen what we need to know as a flimsy excuse for your obsessive witch hunt.
Obsessed much ?
Like get over it already. Harry ain’t ever coming back to you losers.
Harry is a private citizen. He holds no public office in the US and never did or will. FOIA in no way applies to him. It’s not a permission slip to invade the privacy of private citizens. This just shows how the “invisible contract” has legs. It has crossed the pond and sucked up the American fascists too. You would think that the right wing over here would have better things to worry about, like present and future indictments of their lord and master for one.
There’s a personal privacy exception to the FOIA – this probably falls under that.
This is dumb and wasteful.
Yeah this FOIA is going nowhere as it’s private info concerning a private citizen. I worked an immigration law firm for 3 years, not a lawyer but where drvg use comes into play is the good moral character you need when you naturalize. Any drug use is seen as not having “good moral character” we used to advise to never admit to any drug use or even take pictures with clothing depicting p0t or whatever. You can’t never be too careful, i doubt he’s in trouble and he shouldn’t be.
If Harry was given any kind of waiver, it was by the Trump administration. He’s the sort of immigrant they want in this country. MAGA would rather deport Meghan than him.
AGREED.
They know this ain’t going anywhere. They just need to generate headlines.
The obsession is real.
Tinfoil hat theory: They are trying to get the right wing maga nuts to go after Harry here so that if one of them does something nefarious to Harry they (family) won’t be blamed. I know sounds crazy but the tabloids there make it very unsafe for Harry on bitter isle ( hence his stealth) so they are trying to use the maga nuts to make him unsafe here. They are using immigration to do it.
The MAGATs have been after Harry and Meghan since the moment their relationship was revealed. Some of the major derangers are US citizens and rabid Drumpf supporters.
One of the worst, who is all over tumblr and Fail under multiple assumed/related names? She once revealed she’s a white retiree living in a car-free retirement complex in Florida. She spends all of her time, and has spent all of her time for nearly SEVEN YEARS now, attacking Meghan and Harry online.
This has Camilla Tominey’s hands all over it. Two years ago she participated in a panel with the Heritage Foundation where those morons whined about how “the left” is attacking the monarchy and undermining the pillar of democracy.
‘unwitting pawn’. Other than the only people treating Harry like that is them, it’s also just another way to call Harry stupid. These people are gross. This is trying to get the magats riled and throw in Obama, Biden etc and he’s not obviously close to the obamas, remember when they mocked H and M for not being invited to obamas birthday? Nothing like consistency of narrative
Let’s be real; if Harry was Black, the HF would’ve had a better chance in getting away with this bullshit in the US. But he’s white; he’s white with social status, he’s white with money….who is living and paying taxes in the US on through their home and their foundation. Not a damn thing is going to happen.
Daily Mail is always stirring the pot against Prince Harry and Meghan.
When I married my husband he was here on an H1 Visa as an athlete. Once we married he immediately applied for a ‘Green Card’ as my spouse. Do these idiots think that Prince Harry lied on his Green Card application and that someone was going to deny that application? Ugh, yeah, I don’t think so. He is a member of the UK Royal Family, he honorably served in the British military. Who do they think is not going to let him into the US?
Yeah those applications contain private data which if hacked, can lead to major identity theft issues. I hope it gets justly laughed out and thrown in the circular file! 🤣
Not that I think for one minute this FOIA application would be successful, but if it were, things like PII (personally identifiable information) would be redacted–big fat black lines across the page–with an explanatory note as to why.
From the US Citizenship and Immigration Services website:
Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act (PA), you can request:
1. Your own immigration records;
2. Someone else’s immigration records, if you have their WRITTEN PERMISSION (caps mine); and
3. Agency policies, data, communications, and other records
If all the poor immigrant people I know who have married American citizens have all gotten their legal residency (aka green card) within 2 years, absolutely no way Harry doesn’t have his.
This is such a stupid story.
Harry is the spouse of an American citizen and the father of two American citizens, he is going nowhere. He’s never leaving Meghan or his children, weirdos.
Heard on Friday via avid Daily Express reader ‘Harry has to come home now’. Home. ‘He’s a drug addict’. She was so happy at this
Ludicrous. Yeah, Harry looks addicted. To his wife and kids. Those red eyes tell on him in every pic.
LOL. I don’t really see him having red eyes. I will self correct.
Red eyes of love. When he’s looking at his wife….determined, horny, love, respectful eyes. Looking at his children. Love, love, love. Harry is the silverback gorilla, the alpha wolf, the emperor penguin when it comes to HIS family. I spent almost 17 years watching geese outside an office window. Sh*t went down when a perceived threat happened to the family.
I wonder if the Firm gave some American conservative groups money to harass the Sussexes and this is the Heritage Foundation’s way of saying that they took some action without really doing anything. I am pretty sure the Heritage Foundation does not want to spend their limited funds going down this rabbit hole. Illuminating to see the organizations the royals reach out to in the US. Says a lot about the Firm and their preferences
I think the HF sees it as a chance to get publicity and gather more funds from maga idiots.
And the worst thing is, it might work.
Nile Gardiner, director of the HF, is a british royalist. It’s not really an American thinktank if a British royalist is the director. That’s not very American. Much like, the Cambridges/Wails American Friends of the Royal Foundation of the – has changed names now-but in 2014 when the Cambridges were in America, it was a Brit that hosted the 35K plus entry fee party. Yes, titled Martin Sorrell. He’s had some scandals.
This line made me LOL: “And there are fears that Harry’s friendships with prominent Democratic Party figures such as former president Barack Obama and major Democratic donors including Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry could see him become an ‘unwitting pawn in a highly political game’.”
There are fears. Who holds these fears? Do the same people fear that William is an “unwitting pawn” of the Tories? … Someone is salty that Harry has friends in high places LOL.
What political game??? I have no idea what these people are talking about!!!
I had the exact same thoughts about that line 😆
has the daily mail becomes a fearmonger
I imagine the Heritage Foundation will be receiving a “cease and desist” letter from Harry’s lawyers pretty soon.
I would not be at all surprised to learn that a large sum of money went to The Heritage Foundation from the Mail.
They say that this is for the benefit of the American people, right? Well, they’re wrong. If they really want to get information for the American people, this is who they should be asking for the Visa applictations for:
Elon Musk
Rupert Murdoch
Melania Trump
Melania’s parents
There you go. If you want to inform the American people of something they want to know, these are the applications to get copies of. If you want to do what the UK tabloid media wants then don’s say it’s for the American people.
I’m sure those bigots hate Harry. Everyone conservative I’ve seen does. I don’t even speak with with conservatives in the year 2023. There is no excuse for that idiocy and I don’t want it near me.
My years in uni, we were not allowed to use data from think-tanks in our fact-based presentation for a reason.
I stay unimpressed in an organization that wants all democratic gains for the ?? years revoked.
I will not question their right to be an asshole….
The Heritage Foundation is the reason our Supreme Court is what it is. They have a ton of power. Why are they concentrating it against Harry and Meghan? A lot of funding from Rupert Murdoch is my guess.