Bo Cooper
Bo is a Partner in the firm’s Washington, DC office. He leads the firm’s Government Strategies and Compliance Group and is a member of Fragomen’s Executive Committee. Bo provides strategic immigration advice to corporations, nonprofit organizations, hospitals and research institutions, universities, trade associations, international media outlets and individuals facing complex immigration problems. He has long experience in helping clients identify and drive policy solutions; has guided clients through complex immigration strategy challenges, including through interactions with Congress, with the executive agencies and with consulates around the world; and has represented clients in large-scale federal audits and investigations.
Before entering private practice, Bo served as General Counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the predecessor to today’s immigration agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, from 1999 to 2003. He directed a legal program of 700 attorneys in 56 offices across the nation. Bo served in this capacity during two Administrations, advising the Commissioner of the INS, the Attorney General of the United States, the White House, other Executive Branch agencies and the U.S. Congress on all aspects of U.S. immigration law. He also has extensive federal litigation experience, including several years as a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the Department of Justice.
Bo has testified frequently before the U.S. Congress and has made many television, radio and print media appearances, including the PBS Newshour, Sixty Minutes, Nightline, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, MSNBC, Bloomberg TV, BBC Radio, CBC Radio and National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” While in government, he was involved in negotiating immigration-related agreements between the U.S. and other governments and acted as a U.S. delegate to international organizations.
Bo has taught immigration, national security and related courses at the Michigan, Georgetown and American University law schools, and he currently teaches asylum law as a member of the adjunct faculty at Tulane Law School. He has an extensive pro bono practice, addressing asylum, Convention Against Torture and a wide range of other immigration issues for clients in need of donated legal services. Bo has appeared as amicus in key immigration cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, has served as an expert witness in federal litigation surrounding the reach of federal and state authority over immigration and has advised the Department of Homeland Security through a Homeland Security Advisory Committee task force. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Migration Policy Institute.