Prince Harry has spent the past two years fighting claims that he received special treatment when he emigrated to the United States. Now, his immigration files have finally been unsealed.
Harry Learns His Fate
The Donald Trump administration has confirmed that Harry did not receive any special treatment when he emigrated to this country. He came here with his wife Meghan Markle after stepping down as a senior royal back in 2020. A Department of Homeland Security lawyer told Daily Mail that Harry’s application followed all the “applicable rules and regulations.”
This was revealed in heavily redacted documents that were made public on Tuesday. The documents were made public thanks to a lawsuit by the Heritage Foundation. This conservative think tank sought to prove that Harry lied about his past drug use in his visa papers.
In both his Netflix docuseries and his memoir Spare, Harry had admitted to previously using cannabis, cocaine, and magic mushrooms. If Harry had mentioned this on his visa application, he could have been denied entry into the U.S.
How likely that would have been is probably minimal, but it is an option.
“Of course…I had been doing cocaine around this time,” Harry wrote in Spare. “At someone’s country house, during a shooting weekend, I’d been offered a line, and I’d done a few more since. It wasn’t much fun, and it didn’t make me particularly happy, as it seemed to make everyone around me, but it did make me feel different, and that was the main goal.”
“Feel. Different,” he added. “I was a deeply unhappy 17-year-old boy willing to try almost anything that would alter the status quo.”
Related: Meghan Markle, Prince Harry On a ‘Victim Olympics Campaign’ Says ‘Family Ties’ Star Justine Bateman
Harry’s Redacted Immigration Files
Though Harry’s immigration files were unsealed, they were heavily redacted in order to protect his privacy. Jarrod Panter, chief Freedom Of Information Act officer at the Department of Homeland Security, explained that certain portions of Harry’s immigration files must remain hidden because anyone who is familiar with immigration law could easily determine the royal’s status.
Panter stated that U.S. immigration “routinely protects from disclosure the nonimmigrant/immigrant status sought by third parties who do not have permission from the beneficiary to receive this information.”
“To release such information would potentially expose the individual to harm from members of the public who might have a reason to manipulate or harass individuals depending on their status in the United States,” he added.
Related: Trump Rips Meghan Markle When Asked About Deporting Prince Harry
Trump Vowed To Not Protect Harry
Last year, President Trump told the Daily Express that he “wouldn’t protect” Harry if it was found that the royal had gotten preferential treatment on his visa application.
“I wouldn’t protect him… He would be on his own if it was down to me,” Trump said at the time.
Luckily for Harry, it seems that he is in the clear. Now that this is behind him, Harry will be free to continue living in the ritzy area of Montecito, California with his wife Meghan and their two children.
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