The Honorable Immigration Judge Nickolaus T Schlegel

Otay Mesa, CA Immigration Court
Appointed July 2026 · President Donald Trump Attorney General Pamela Bondi (AG inferred from date)
Less than a year on the immigration bench
Appointed under a Republican administration

Background

The Honorable Immigration Judge Nickolaus T. Schlegel was appointed as an immigration judge to begin hearing cases in July 2026. Judge Schlegel earned a Bachelor of Science in 2014 from Northern Arizona University and a Juris Doctor in 2018 from the Creighton University School of Law. From July 2025 to July 2026, he served as counsel with the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security, in San Diego. From September of 2019 to July of 2025, he served as an attorney advisor with the Executive Office for Immigration Review, Department of Justice, at the San Diego Immigration Court from 2023 to 2025, the Phoenix Immigration Court from 2021 to 2023, and the Eloy Immigration Court from 2019 to 2021, entering on duty through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. From August 2018 to September 2019, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Judge Renee T. Bennett of the Superior Court of Arizona in Pima County. Judge Schlegel is a member of the State Bar of California.

Newly appointed. This judge was sworn in in July 2026, after the end of the case records this tool is built from, so no decisions of theirs appear in the data yet and there are no statistics on this page. The court, appointment date and biography below come from EOIR’s announcement of 29 July 2026. Statistics will appear here once EOIR releases case data covering their docket.