Judge Ignacio Torteya, III was  sworn into office as President of the Federal Magistrate Judges Association (FMJA) on July 15, 2025 during the annual members’ meeting held in Pittsburgh. He previously served as the FMJA Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President, President-Elect, as well as various FMJA committees. He will be joined by the following 2025-2026 FMJA Officers: Hon. Helen Adams (President-Elect), Hon. Katharine Parker (Vice President), Hon. Omar Aboulhosn (Treasurer), Hon. Stacie Beckerman (Secretary), and Hon. Shiva Hodges (Immediate Past President).

With nearly 700 members, the FMJA has a mission to promote the independence of the federal judiciary and to educate the public about the role of United States Magistrate Judges. The FMJA participates in the governance of the United States Courts, reviews and suggests revisions to statutes and procedural rules, champions civic education and outreach, and advances the rule of law globally. It also encourages legal scholarship through the Federal Courts Law Review.

Judge Torteya has served as a United States Magistrate Judge since 2014, presiding over civil and criminal matters in the Brownsville Division of the Southern District of Texas. He received his B.A. degree in political science from Baylor University and his J.D. from the Baylor University School of Law. He is active in the Federal Bar Association–Southern District of Texas Chapter, and is frequently invited to speak to federal judges, prosecutors and defenders from Latin and South America at conferences held in Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, and El Salvador regarding extraditions and the adversarial system in the U.S, sponsored by the Department of Justice’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT), the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL), and the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative (ROLI).