Federal prosecutors on Monday detailed legal arguments for the detention until trial of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man mistakenly deported by the Trump administration.
Abrego Garcia was returned to Nashville from El Salvador on Friday to face two criminal human smuggling charges tied to a 2022 Tennessee traffic stop.
He appeared briefly in a downtown Nashville courtroom late Friday, and is scheduled to return to court this Friday for a formal arraignment of the charges against him.
That hearing will also consider a motion by the Justice Department to keep Abrego Garcia in custody until the date of his trial, which has not yet been set.
A federal grand jury indictment issued under seal May 21 and made public June 6 charges Abrego Garcia with “conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain” and “unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain.”