Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man at the center of a high-profile deportation and human smuggling case, are asking a federal judge to keep their client in jail after the Trump administration revealed in court it intends to deport the defendant to a third country if he is released from custody.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys filed an emergency order on Friday, requesting U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes of Tennessee to delay the court’s issue of Abrego Garcia’s order of release until a July 16 hearing.

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“Yesterday, at an emergency hearing before Judge Xinis in the District of Maryland, the government represented that it intends to detain Mr. Abrego and remove him to a ‘third country’ as soon as this Court releases Mr. Abrego from pretrial custody,” the emergency order states. “This is the first time the government has represented, to anyone, that it intended not to deport Mr. Abrego back to El Salvador following a trial on these charges, but to deport him to a third country immediately.”

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers on Thursday asked U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis to order the return of their client to Maryland, where he lived with his family before getting deported to El Salvador, following his release from jail.

Now, Abrego Garcia’s legal team is mounting a bid to keep him imprisoned after the Department of Justice made a “contradictory” statement to a news outlet.

Hours after the emergency hearing, the order reads, “the DOJ told the Associated Press the exact opposite: that it intends to try Mr. Abrego in this District before removing him to a third country.”

A DOJ spokesperson said the administration will try Abrego Garcia on human smuggling charges in Tennessee before deporting him.

“This defendant has been charged with horrific crimes, including trafficking children, and will not walk free in our country again,” DOJ spokesman Chad Gilmartin told the Associated Press.

Due to the DOJ’s “contradictory” statements, Abrego Garcia’s defense team said it has no “faith in any representation made on this issue by the DOJ” and requests “to delay the issuance of the release order until the July 16 hearing on the government’s motion for revocation.”

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

Judge Xinis scheduled a hearing on the federal government’s motion to immediately deport Abrego Garcia to a third country for July 7.

Judge Holmes, who presides in Nashville, Tennessee, previously ruled that Abrego Garcia has a right to be released from custody while awaiting trial. But on Wednesday, she decided to keep him in jail for at least a few more days. The defendant’s attorneys hope he can stay detained until mid-July to temporarily prevent his possible second deportation.

ABREGO GARCIA COULD BE DEPORTED ‘THIS WEEKEND,’ LAWYERS SAY

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced his return to the U.S. and indictment on federal smuggling charges earlier this month.

Friday’s court filing comes after the Supreme Court ruled this week that the Trump administration can deport illegal immigrants to third countries, or places not of their origin. The decision allows the government to avoid violating an immigration judge’s 2019 ruling that granted Abrego Garcia protection from getting deported to his home country of El Salvador, where he claims to fear for his safety.