Protesters and national media members gathered outside the Downtown Federal Court House in Nashville, where Kilmer Abrego Garcia appeared at the hearing on June 25th (Photo: John Partipiro/Tennesse Seal Lookout)

NASHVILLE — Maryland, facing criminal charges in Tennessee, will remain in jail until at least Friday after being mistakenly deported to El Salvador, to determine if prosecutors have the power to prevent him from “fasterly deporting him.”

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, appeared in the courtroom in downtown Nashville on Wednesday, holding a hearing set the conditions for his release while criminal cases against him progressed.

Abrego was charged with smuggling two offenders on June 6 by a major Tennessee ju trial. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. The charges occurred while Abrego was in a Salvador prison, when US immigrant staff dispatched him after a routine traffic stop.

A Justice Department lawyer later admitted that Abrego’s deportation was a mistake. His incident has come to symbolize the Trump administration’s tactics of suppressing immigrants.

Sitting next to his lawyer in an orange jumpsuit, Abrego occasionally glanced at the direction of the gallery where his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sula, sat in the first row. It was the couple’s wedding anniversary, she told reporters earlier in the day.

Federal prosecutors oppose Kilmar Abrego Garcia will appear before court for possible release.

However, when Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes oversaw the conditions for Abregos’ pretrial release, the defense attorney raised the illusion that he could face deportation instead.

Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials are expected to detain Abrego as soon as they are released by federal court.

Abrego’s lawyer Sean Hecker called for a judge’s decision that Abrego’s release would be conditional on the prosecutor who works to ensure that he will not be deported while the case is ongoing.

Hecker also sought assurance that Abrego would not be housed in Texas, Louisiana, or any other part of the country that could hinder access to his attorneys.

In support of his demand, Hecker noted that the prosecutors and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had a history of coordination and cooperation in the Abrego case.

DHS and federal prosecutors coordinated to bring charges against Abrego, including promoting his return from El Salvador facing charges in Tennessee. They will also establish an agreement with potential witnesses against Abrego and end their own deportation cases, Hecker said.

However, US lawyer Rob McGuire has shown that he will not make any promises about Abrego’s placement at an ice facility that lawyers have access to, or whether he was placed in which facility he was placed in to prevent his deportation. He told the court “I will do my best.”

“I will coordinate with the Department of Homeland Security, but obviously I can’t tell them what to do,” he said. McGuire noted that ICE, a division of the Federal Homeland Security Agency, is not a party to the case.

McGuire had asked Abrego to remain in the former US detention.

In an order issued over the weekend, Holmes denied the prosecutor’s petition and found Abrego was entitled to release him while awaiting trial.

“These are kind of practical meanings of that (the judge’s decision),” McGuire said Wednesday.

Holmes gave his lawyers until noon Friday to file legal arguments addressing the issue of “what the government can do to prevent Abrego from being deported rapidly.”

Meanwhile, prosecutors are pursuing appeals for Holmes’ weekend decision to free Abrego.

US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. set a separate hearing date on Wednesday, considering the prosecutor’s request to revoke Abrego’s release from former US custody.

Criminal charges Abrego stems from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee.

Abrego was pulled for speeding with nine Hispanic men behind the Chevrolet suburbs. He was not arrested or charged in the case.

However, a recent Homeland Security investigation opened at the 3-year-old stop, claiming that the trip was part of a longtime human smuggling scheme, a wage driver who illegally transported the southern border to destinations across the country.

Sam Stockard contributed.