Prince Harry Might Face Deportation Over Past Drug Use
A conservative think tank is demanding that Prince Harry makes his visa application public.
Prince Harry’s cons list for attending King Charles’s coronation just got one bullet point longer — and a whole lot more complicated. A Washington D.C.-based conservative think tank is demanding that Harry’s U.S. visa application be made public following his admission of past drug use.
Earlier this year, during his global press tour for Spare, Harry revealed on-camera he has used cocaine, magic mushrooms, marijuana, and psychedelics including ayahuasca. The Heritage Foundation wants to know if Harry omitted to use of those drugs on his application.
If the answer is yes, he could be facing possible deportation for lying to immigration officials. That also means if he decides to travel to the U.K. for Coronation Weekend, he may not be allowed back into the US.
“This request is in the public interest in light of the potential revocation of Prince Harry’s visa for illicit substance use and further questions regarding the Prince’s drug use and whether he was properly vetted before entering the United States,” The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project director Mike Howell told Daily Mail.
The real ticker is whether or not Harry received preferential treatment for being a Prince, The Heritage Foundation added. Typically, those with a history of drug use are denied entrance into the U.S. Thus, if Harry was honest about his drug record and immigration turned a blind eye, the public may have something to say about that.
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“An admission of drug use is usually grounds for inadmissibility,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Page Six. “That means Prince Harry’s visa should have been denied or revoked because he admitted to using cocaine, mushrooms, and other drugs.”
Albeit, attorney James Leonard argues Harry’s past drug use would have to be linked to a criminal charge for immigration to raise eyebrows.
“Absent any criminal charge related to drugs or alcohol or any finding by a judicial authority that Prince Harry is a habitual drug user, which he clearly is not, I don’t see any issue with the disclosures in his memoir regarding recreational experimentation with drugs,” he told the outlet.
“You’ve got to give them something that would trigger it, and revealing it in a book, that you experimented with drugs when you were a young man, I don’t think gets you there,” Leonard continued.
Leonard did note, however, if Harry ever got a DWI or was arrested, then his visa might be in jeopardy.
Visa records are kept private, so it’s uncertain whether The Heritage Foundation’s legal dispute will go in their favor. It’s also unclear what this may mean when Harry has to review his U.S. visa.
