What a federal judge just said about the controversy over Prince Harry’s immigration records

An effort to force the release of Prince Harry’s immigration records hit a major obstacle Monday when a federal judge ruled in favor of Harry’s right to privacy.
D.C. District Judge Carl J. Nichols said that public interest in the records is not significant enough to justify a court-ordered document release.
Harry has a “legitimate privacy interest in his immigration status,” Nichols wrote, per The Washington Post.
The lawsuit over Prince Harry’s immigration records originated last year.
It was brought by a conservative think tank called the Heritage Foundation, which argued that accessing the records would help the public determine whether the Department of Homeland Security is appropriately screening for past drug use.
“Our goal is to ensure the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) treat everyone — prince or ordinary citizen — equally when it comes to being allowed to legally enter the U.S.,” wrote Nile Gardiner, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, earlier this year.
Gardiner noted that Harry has made it clear in his memoir, “Spare,” and elsewhere that he’s used a variety of drugs, including marijuana and cocaine. That drug use should have come up during his move to the U.S., since visa applicants are asked whether they’ve violated laws related to controlled substances.
“Harry seems to have received special treatment: the DHS looked the other way if the Prince answered truthfully, or it looked the other way if the Prince lied on his visa application. Either action would be wrong,” Gardiner — and the Heritage Foundation lawsuit — argued.
The lawsuit is between the Heritage Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security, not Heritage and Prince Harry.
The foundation filed it after DHS denied its request for the records under the Freedom of Information Act, according the The Washington Post.
Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, have lived together in the U.S. since 2020, but it’s unknown what visa Harry entered the country under, The Washington Post reported.
Some types of visas don’t require much — if any — disclosure about past drug use, or they allow for applicants to apply for a waiver to excuse known violations of controlled substances laws, the article said.
What is known is that Harry describes himself as a U.S. resident in legal filings in the United Kingdom, as the Deseret News previously reported.
Earlier this year, he told ABC News that he loves “every single day” in the U.S. and has thought a bit about applying for citizenship.
“The American citizenship is a thought that has crossed my mind, but certainly is not something that is a high priority for me right now,” Prince Harry said.
In his ruling, judge Nichols rejected the Heritage Foundation’s claim that learning more about Prince Harry’s immigration records would help the public understand the Department of Homeland Security’s approach to past drug use.
“Public disclosure of records about a single admission of a foreign national … would provide the public, at best, limited information about the Department’s general policy in admitting aliens,” he said in his ruling, per The Washington Post.
A Heritage Foundation employee, Mike Howell, who is involved in the lawsuit, told The Washington Post that he’s considering appealing the judge’s decision.