MoxDash

The Heritage Foundation has been trying to get their dirty fascist hands on Prince Harry’s American visa application for months now. Heritage is in active collaboration with several British newspapers, including the Telegraph and the Times, and the right-wing think-tank is seemingly doing all of this to create stories for the “niche” British publications. Heritage’s entire argument hinges on “if.” As in, they’re going on a massive fishing expedition through the American court system to release one man’s visa application simply on the argument that IF Harry lied about taking drugs, then his visa should have been rejected. Last week, Heritage was granted a court hearing over their attempts to compel the Department of Homeland Security to release Harry’s records. The hearing went down yesterday. The judge made some kind of ruling…

A federal judge has given the Department of Homeland Security until next Tuesday to decide how it will handle a conservative think tank’s request for Prince Harry’s US immigration records.

The Heritage Foundation has asked the US government via the Freedom of Information Act to see his visa application, citing his admission of past recreational drug use in his memoir. The group is questioning whether immigration officials properly granted Prince Harry’s application, since admission of past drug use can be grounds to reject a visa application.

At a hearing Tuesday in Washington, DC, federal judge Carl Nichols gave DHS until June 13 to determine whether or not it will expedite or respond to a request for the records. Several agencies within the department, including US Border Patrol, have denied the FOIA requests, but the agency’s headquarters has not yet made a determination.

In court filings, DHS has noted that the US Customs and Border Protection agency originally denied the requests from Heritage because the group did not have Prince Harry’s authorization or consent to release the information.

“A person’s visa … is confidential,” DHS attorney John Bardo said in court Tuesday.

DHS attorneys have also said that an injunction to expedite the FOIA requests is not appropriate in the case since Heritage has, among other things, not shown how they will suffer irreparable harm if the information is not quickly released.

When asked about the privacy aspect of their records request, attorney Samuel Dewey, who represents Heritage, said Prince Harry’s privacy on the issue of past drug use has been “extraordinarily diminished” given his public remarks on the subject.

“We’re only focused on the specific issue that’s drawn all the press attention: the drug use,” Dewey said. “He’s talked about, he’s written about it extensively. He has waved any privacy interest he has in his drug use. He has bragged about it (in his memoir) and sold that.”

[From CNN]

I’ll admit, I don’t really understand this “ruling.” The judge basically told DHS that they have a week to decide whether or not to release Harry’s records… and then what? If DHS comes back a week from now and says “we studied the issue and we decided no, we won’t release the records,” what then? The judge seemingly kicked it back to DHS, to do whatever they feel is necessary in this situation. Considering DHS is fighting Heritage’s FOIA request in court, I think we know their answer.

Something else to think about: when Harry applied for a visa and filled out all of these DHS forms, it was 2020. That’s when the Sussexes moved to California – late March 2020. The last year of the Trump administration. IF (Heritage’s favorite word) Harry’s visa application “should” have been rejected, surely the Trump-era DHS was to blame?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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