Allegations That Prince Harry Skipped the Line on Visa Application “Unequivocally Dismissed,” Says Source

On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security released documents related to Prince Harry’s immigration status and the Heritage Foundation’s quest to make his visa-application records public under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents contain private declarations from three DHS officers who had reviewed Harry’s records, as well as the transcript of a hearing with Judge Carl Nichols about the matter. However, they redact all details about the Duke of Sussex’s immigration status and the type of visa he has, with one of the DHS officials stating there was no evidence that Harry received special treatment from the government.

A source close to the duke says the documents show he was properly admitted to the US. “Allegations that Prince Harry received preferential treatment during his US immigration process were unequivocally dismissed today by the Trump administration,” the source tells Vanity Fair. ”Furthermore, the redactions in the case further weaken the Heritage Foundation’s claim that the duke’s immigration records should be considered a matter of public interest.”

The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind the controversial Project 2025 plans that have helped guide President Donald Trump’s second term, started its quest to acquire Harry’s immigration information in 2023, soon after the publication of his best-selling memoir, Spare. Their early filings in the case claim that Harry admitted to “a long history” of drug use in the memoir, alleging that this raised questions about whether the royal was properly vetted when he moved to the US in 2020 along with his wife, Meghan Markle.

Nile Gardiner, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, told GB News that he was not surprised that Harry’s full application was not released. “We still do not know whether or not Prince Harry lied on his application,” Gardiner added. “The fight continues to release Prince Harry’s immigration application to the American people.”

In a heavily redacted declaration from April 2024 released on Tuesday, Jarrod Panter, a DHS official in the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act Unit, told the court that Heritage’s arguments about “preferential treatment” were baseless, adding that “applicable rules and regulations” were followed when Harry was admitted to the US. “This speculation by Plaintiffs does not point to any evidence of government misconduct. The records, as explained above, do not support such an allegation but show the regulatory process involved in reviewing and granting immigration benefits, which was done in compliance with the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

The case was originally dismissed last fall, following DHS’s decision that none of the records could be made public without compromising Harry’s right to privacy. The foundation later appealed the decision, arguing that certain aspects of DHS’s private decision-making should be released. In a February hearing, the first in the case since Donald Trump’s reelection, Judge Nichols indicated that some documents could be made public provided that they didn’t violate Harry’s privacy rights.

According to a transcript of an April 30, 2024, hearing that took place in front of Nichols, DHS attorneys John Bardo and Peter Pfaffenroth noted that part of Harry’s immigration records were in the possession of the State Department. “We would have to research whether the court is able to get another agency that’s not involved in this case into this case, and we would likely need to take it up the chain through various people at State and at Justice,” Bardo said. “But this case is really about whether the Heritage Foundation is entitled to these records.”

In February, Trump told the New York Post that he had no plans to deport Harry from American soil, despite the Heritage Foundation’s efforts. Still, the invocation of the State Department might set the conservative think tank on another route by which they can continue to pursue Harry’s private immigration records. In recent weeks, the Trump White House has begun to invoke the secretary of state’s rarely used powers to deport a noncitizen if they deem the person’s presence in the US might cause “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”

In a Monday interview with CBS, State Secretary Marco Rubio said that he plans to continue using that power to target pro-Palestine protesters for deportation, following the arrest of Columbia graduate student and green card holder Mahmoud Khalil. “We don’t want people in our country that are gonna be committing crimes and undermining our national security or the public safety,” Rubio said. “It’s that simple.”