For the past year, Heritage Foundation has been engaged in a truly disturbing attack on Prince Harry’s American residency. The Heritage wingnuts have latched onto Harry’s admissions in Spare that he tried cocaine and he’s used other drugs, including hallucinogens. Heritage claims that Harry’s Spare confessions somehow mean that he lied on his visa application and the only way they can prove that is if DHS releases Harry’s visa application publicly. This is also about Heritage trying to make the Biden administration look “bad,” because the wingnuts have all apparently forgotten that Harry moved to the US in 2020, when Donald Trump was president and presumably the Trump-era DHS originally approved Harry’s visa application. Speaking of, the judge in the case has basically asked to see Harry’s visa application so he can double-check it, only DHS has asked for a delay:
The Department of Homeland Security says it needs an extra two weeks to hunt down Prince Harry’s immigration records as a federal judge weighs whether or not they should be made public. The department made its request in a court filing Sunday, saying it needed more time to respond to Judge Carl Nichols’ order to provide more information about why his immigration details should be kept secret.
The conservative Heritage Foundation is seeking the release of the documents amid questions about whether Harry lied about his drug use in his visa application.
‘Defendant has begun the search but searching for and reviewing the records has taken longer than anticipated,’ wrote D.H.S. lawyers in the filing. They also said other government agencies may need to review the documents before they can be handed over to the judge.
‘Thus, having established good cause, defendant respectfully requests an additional fourteen days, up to and including April 4, 2024, to comply with the court’s order,’ they wrote.
Yeah, this sounds like a typical bureaucratic mess, especially given (once again) that the visa application was probably approved during the previous administration. I genuinely hope nothing comes of this case, but just wait – the Heritage wingnuts are keeping Trump informed and they’re feeding him talking points about Harry too:
Donald Trump has once again hinted that, under a second Trump administration, Prince Harry could be kicked out of the United States if he is found to have lied on paperwork about his drug use. Trump told Nigel Farage in a GB News interview to be broadcast Tuesday, when asked what he would do if allegations that Harry may have lied on his visa forms proved accurate: “We’ll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they’ll have to take appropriate action.”
Farage asked if “appropriate action” could mean “not staying in America,” to which Trump replied, according to a report on the outlet’s website, “Oh I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me. You just have to tell me. You would have thought they would have known this a long time ago.”
The interview is the latest twist in a legal case that increasingly looks like it could become a real problem for Harry. An immigration lawyer recently told The Daily Beast that Harry could be vulnerable to a politically motivated attack on his residential status, saying: “Department of State decisions are discretionary and very susceptible to political influence. His visa could be canceled. He could be denied entry upon return to the U.S. from foreign travel for inadmissibility due to prior drug usage, despite an unexpired visa in his passport. There are many scenarios where political influence could impact Harry’s ability to re-enter the U.S.”
As I’ve said before, if Trump “wins,” there are much bigger issues than “will he deport Prince Harry.” The end of the American republic will be upon us and an army of white supremacists will take to the streets. Which makes it even more notable that our British allies, drunk with white nationalist/royalist fervor, are excitedly pitching Harry’s deportation as a selling point for a second Trump term.
Photos courtesy of Netflix and Cover Images.