Us Government Court Filings Keep Prince Harry's Immigration Forms Secret

Heavily redacted court filings released Tuesday shed no fresh light on the circumstances under which Prince Harry entered the United States, the latest development in a legal fight by a conservative group that is pushing to find out whether Harry lied about past drug use on his immigration forms.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials responded to a request from U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols by saying the records were being "withheld in full" and that all records are deemed "categorically exempt from disclosure."

The case has centered on the circumstances under which Harry - the Duke of Sussex and the son of King Charles III - entered the U.S. when he and his wife Meghan Markle moved to Southern California in 2020. The Heritage Foundation sued after DHS largely rejected its Freedom of Information Act request to release Harry's records. Harry is not a party in the lawsuit.

Heritage has argued there is "intense public interest" in knowing whether Harry received special treatment during the application process, particularly after his 2023 memoir "Spare" revealed past drug use. Harry has not consented to having his records made public, said Shari Suzuki, an official handling Freedom of Information Act requests for DHS and Customs and Border Protection.

"To release Prince Harry's exact status could subject him to reasonably foreseeable harm in the form of harassment as well as unwanted contact by the media and others," another official, DHS chief FOIA officer Jarrod Panter, wrote.