The Department of Homeland Security has until the end of Tuesday to comply with a federal judge’s order and release Prince Harry’s immigration records, which could reveal if he disclosed prior drug use before coming to America, according to court records.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols had previously ruled in favor of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that’s been seeking the records for several years under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Drug use itself isn’t a disqualifying factor for a visa, but lying about it could be a greater challenge. In theory, if the younger brother of future U.K. king Prince William didn’t disclose drug use on his visa application, that could be grounds to have him removed.
In his 2023 memoir “Spare,” Harry admitted to using cocaine, among other drugs.
“Of course I had been taking cocaine at that time. At someone’s house, during a hunting weekend, I was offered a line, and since then I had consumed some more,” he wrote in a Spanish language version of his book.
“It wasn’t very fun, and it didn’t make me feel especially happy as seemed to happen to others, but it did make me feel different, and that was my main objective. To feel. To be different.”
The federal government has fought efforts to air Harry’s paperwork, saying the “request does not meet the public interest standard set forth” in FOIA guidelines, according to defense lawyers.
However, Judge Nichols has ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and on Saturday said he’d reviewed proposed redactions from the government.
“Those redactions appearing appropriate, the government is ordered to lodge on the docket the redacted versions of those documents no later than March 18, 2025,” Nichols ruled.
Administration officials could not be immediately reached for comment on Monday. Representatives for Prince Harry declined comment.
Prince Harry, who is also in court papers called “his Royal Highness Prince Henry Charles Albert David George of Wales, the Duke of Sussex, the Earl of Dumbarton, and Baron Kilkeel K.C.V.O.,” stepped away from the royal family in early 2020.
He, his wife Megan Markle and their children, Archie and Lilibet, live near Santa Barbara.
President Donald Trump told the New York Post in February that he won’t seek to have Prince Harry removed from the country.
“I don’t want to do that,” Trump said before taking aim at Markle, who has been critical of the president. “I’ll leave him alone. He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible.”
