Daniel Gallegos

Daniel J. Gallegos (born March 19, 1978) is an American attorney, a former judge on the New Mexico Court of Appeals in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a former district judge on the Second Judicial District Court in Bernalillo County, New Mexico. He is a member of the Republican Party. In 2025, Gallegos graduated with distinction from Georgetown University Law Center with an L.L.M. in National Security Law. After graduating from the Naval Justice School with honors in 2005, he reported to Naval Air Station Jacksonville as a military prosecutor. From 2014-2015, Gallegos mobilized to Joint Task Force Guantanamo, where he served as liaison to the International Committee of the Red Cross. He ran a statewide campaign to keep his seat on the court. He was the subject of an attack ad paid for by New Mexico trial lawyers, portraying him as a puppet of Governor Martinez. In response, Gallegos is quoted by The Santa Fe New Mexican as saying, “It is a disappointing turn of events, given that judicial elections in New Mexico, while nominally partisan, are supposed to be different“ and that "his overt and rancorous appeal to partisanship is antithetical to the concept of judicial independence and the rule of law.”

In December 2018, Governor Martinez appointed Gallegos to the Second Judicial District Court in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, where he presided over felony criminal cases. In November 2020, he lost a partisan countywide election to Democrat Courtney Weaks, 56.2% to 43.8%. His 43.8% was the best performance of any Republican in Bernalillo County in the 2020 New Mexico elections.

In January 2026, Gallegos was mobilized by the U.S. Navy and detailed to the United States Department of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review to serve as a Temporary Immigration Judge.