Former Rep. Nathan Cooper, R-Cape Girardeau has 24 hours to tell the Missouri Supreme Court why he should be able to keep his law license after pleading guilty to immigration fraud charges in federal court:
The action, called an "order to show cause," directs Cooper to respond by 5 p.m. Thursday. The order was signed by Chief Justice Laura Denvir Stith. Judge Stephen Limbaugh of Cape Girardeau did not participate in the decision.
The order cited Cooper's guilty plea to two federal felonies for immigration fraud. The illegal acts Cooper took involved his work as an attorney on behalf of trucking company clients seeking immigrant drivers. Cooper set up shell companies to seek bogus visas and purchased visas approved for workers in the hospitality industry and provided them to the truck drivers.
The Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian article notes that on the day after Cooper pleaded guilty he filed a lawsuit on behalf of an immigrant trying to stay in the United States. The Turner Report featured that information in an Aug. 12 post:
It was a busy week in the federal courthouse for Rep. Nathan Cooper, R-Cape Girardeau. On Wednesday, he pleaded guilty to immigration fraud charges and on Thursday, he filed documents seeking a writ of mandamus that would enable one of his clients, a Bosnian who came to St. Louis in 1999 to be able to live here permanently.
In the document, Cooper says Elmir Muharemovic has been getting the runaround from the INS and asks that his case be expedited.
Cooper, a specialist in immigration law, filed a similar lawsuit on behalf of another Bosnian immigrant living in St. Louis, Nusreta Ibrahimovic, on July 30, according to court records.
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