WASHINGTON >> The Justice Department said Thursday that it intends to try Kilmar Abrego Garcia on federal smuggling charges in Tennessee before it moves to deport him, addressing fears that he could be expelled again from the U.S. within days.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville, Tennessee, recently ruled that Abrego Garcia has a right to be released from jail while awaiting trial on the smuggling charges. But she decided Wednesday to keep him in custody for at least a few more days over concerns that U.S. immigration officials would swiftly detain him and try to deport him again.

But DOJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin told The Associated Press that Abrego Garcia will first be tried in court on the charges.

“This defendant has been charged with horrific crimes, including trafficking children, and will not walk free in our country again,” Gilmartin said.

Abrego Garcia became a flashpoint over President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies when he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March. Facing mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order, the Trump administration returned him this month to face the smuggling charges, which Abrego Garcia’s attorneys characterized as an attempt to justify his erroneous deportation.

As Abrego Garcia’s criminal case has moved forward, concerns grew that he would be swiftly deported upon his release from jail in Tennessee.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers filed an emergency request Thursday to a federal judge in Maryland to order the government to take Abrego Garcia to that state upon release, an arrangement that would prevent his deportation before trial.

“If this Court does not act swiftly, then the Government is likely to whisk Abrego Garcia away to some place far from Maryland,” Abrego Garcia’s attorneys wrote.

Abrego Garcia had lived and worked as a construction worker in Maryland with his American wife and children for more than a decade before his deportation in March. His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, is suing the Trump administration over his deportation in the Maryland federal court where Abrego Garcia’s attorneys filed their emergency request.

“We have concerns that the government may try to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia quickly over the weekend,” one of his attorneys, Jonathan Cooper, told U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland, during a conference call Thursday afternoon.

Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn acknowledged on the call that the U.S. government plans to deport Abrego Garcia to a “third country” that isn’t El Salvador. But he said there was no timeline for the deportation plans.

“We do plan to comply with the orders we’ve received from this court and other courts,” he said. “But there’s no timeline for these specific proceedings.”