WASHINGTON, June 28, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Lawyers for a Salvadoran man who was wrongly deported and then returned to the US to face human smuggling charges took the unusual step on Friday of asking a judge not to release him from prison.

"The irony of this request is not lost on anyone," said the lawyers for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, whose case has become a key test of President Donald Trump's deportation policies.

Abrego Garcia was summarily deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador in March and brought back to the US this month to face human smuggling charges.

A magistrate judge and a federal district judge have both said Abrego Garcia, who is being held in Tennessee, is eligible to be released on bail pending trial.

Federal prosecutors have opposed Abrego Garcia's release and warned that he may be deported once again if he is released from custody.

The deportation threat led Abrego Garcia's lawyers to ask Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes to request that he remain in custody until a hearing in the case scheduled for July 16.

"Because we cannot put any faith in any representation made on this issue by the (Justice Department), we respectfully request to delay the issuance of the release order until the July 16 hearing," they said.

"A short delay will prevent the government from removing Mr. Abrego and allow time for the government to provide reliable information concerning its intentions," they added.

Abrego Garcia is charged in Nashville, Tennessee, with smuggling undocumented migrants around the United States between 2016 and 2025.

He has pleaded not guilty and Holmes said in a ruling earlier this week that prosecutors had not made a convincing argument that he should be detained pending trial.

Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland until he became one of more than 200 people sent to the CECOT prison in El Salvador as part of Trump's crackdown on migrants.

Most of those who were summarily deported were alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the administration has declared a foreign terrorist organization.

Justice Department lawyers later admitted that Abrego Garcia -- who is married to a US citizen -- was wrongly deported due to an "administrative error."

Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country.