In 1986, he was one of the members of the legal team that was the inspiration for the film A Few Good Men, with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, a case involving the assault of a fellow Marine at their base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Politics A political independent during his college years, he became a Republican while in the Navy. Iglesias in an interview with Tavis Smiley, said that he was for: "smaller government, less taxes, personal responsibility, and government restraint." He added, "Only problem is, our leaders haven't been practicing that. We've outspent the Democrats for the past eight years. So there's a difference between the ideals, which I love, and the actual application, which I don't love." In 1995 he was competitively chosen to be a White House Fellow, and served as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Transportation. He ran for New Mexico Attorney General as a Republican in 1998, but narrowly lost to Democrat Patricia A. Madrid. Political career Iglesias was a state Assistant Attorney General (Special Prosecutions; focusing on white collar fraud cases) for the state of New Mexico (1988-1991), then an assistant city attorney for the city of Albuquerque (1991-1993). He returned to employment with the state of New Mexico, first for the State Risk Management Legal Office as Chief Counsel (1995-1998), and the Taxation and Revenue Department as General Counsel (1998-2001). He was an associate with the law firm of Walz and Associates in Albuquerque when he was nominated as US Attorney for the District of New Mexico in August 2001. Iglesias headed a panel that advised the U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on border and immigration matters. While serving on the panel, he opposed pulling the National Guard away from the U.S. border with Mexico. Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy In 2005 Allen Weh, chairman of the New Mexico Republican Party, complained about U.S. Attorney Iglesias to a White House aide for Karl Rove, asking that Iglesias be removed. Weh was dissatisfied with Iglesias due in part to his failure to indict New Mexico State Senator Manny Aragon (D) on fraud and conspiracy charges. Then in 2006 Rove personally told Weh "He's gone." Weh followed up with, "There's nothing we've done that's wrong. It wasn't that Iglesias wasn't looking out for Republicans. He just wasn't doing his job, period." Three weeks after Iglesias was dismissed, his replacement brought a 26