Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who was at the heart of a major deportation legal battle, pleaded not guilty Friday to migrant smuggling charges, and the government was making its case to a Tennessee judge Friday for him to remain in detention while awaiting his trial.

A federal agent laid out details of the government’s case, saying that a confederate of Mr. Abrego Garcia said he made as many as 50 trips a month smuggling people from the border and was paid $1,000 to $1,500 per trip.

In one instance in 2022 — which gave rise to the criminal charges — he was stopped by police in Tennessee with nine people in his vehicle. Body cam footage showed the officers speculating that he was carrying illegal immigrants.

Mr. Abrego Garcia at the time said they had been working on a project in St. Louis and were headed home, but the government says license plate readers show no sign that the vehicle was in St. Louis that year.

The federal agent, according to reporters from The Tennessean who were in the courtroom, said the Department of Homeland Security has found that at least six of the nine people were found to be in the country illegally. Two of the people have been removed from the U.S.

Mr. Abrego Garcia’s public defender lawyers have told the judge the smuggling case he has been charged with isn’t serious enough to earn detention.

“Mr. Abrego Garcia should be released,” the public defender said.

Though Mr. Abrego Garcia stands charged with only one count of migrant smuggling, prosecutors have argued his criminal behavior goes far beyond that.

In a lengthy indictment won from a grand jury, they accuse him of carrying drugs and guns on some smuggling runs and say he carried juvenile migrants on some trips.

In one instance, they say, an informant said Mr. Abrego Garcia solicited nude photos of an underage person.

Federal authorities also say Mr. Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 — a claim an immigration judge has also embraced.

Mr. Abrego Garcia, through his lawyers and family, has denied being a member of MS-13, a criminal Salvadoran gang that operates throughout the U.S. and which the Trump administration has named a terrorist organization.

He was deported on March 15 as part of the three controversial planeloads of migrants sent to El Salvador. Most of those were Venezuelans deported under the Alien Enemies Act, though several dozen were Salvadorans accused of being MS-13 members.

Even if he wins his case before the Tennessee judge, the government has said it plans to hold him in immigration custody. That’s a different authority than being held in the criminal system, though practically the effect would be the same.

Before the criminal charges, the Trump team had insisted Mr. Abrego Garcia would never set foot in the U.S. again. They were battling Judge Paula Xinis, who sits in a federal court in Maryland and who had ordered the government to try to bring him back.

Now, the government says it has fulfilled her order, even though Mr. Abrego Garcia remains in custody and in a different jurisdiction.

Outside the Tennessee courthouse, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, said she had finally been able to speak to her husband, through a video screen, for the first time since his March 12 arrest and subsequent deportation.

She read a message she said Mr. Abrego Garcia had for supporters, in which he didn’t deal with the case against him but repeatedly said he believed God was at work.

“To all the families still fighting to be reunited after a family separation, or if you too are in a detention, Kilmar wants you to have faith. He said, ’These dark times are where we’re facing our tribulations that God has put in our path. But keep praying and keep fighting, that the light will always come soon for all of us, and you too will be able to see your family again.”

For her part, Ms. Vasquez Sura said she was missing Kilmar Jr.’s kindergarten graduation in Maryland to be at her husband’s hearing.

“Our family should never have been in this situation,” she said. “We should be with our children. Me and Kilmar’s mind is here in Tennessee, but my heart is in Maryland with my kids.”

Ms. Vazquez Sura has previously filed for protective orders against her husband over allegations of abusive behavior.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.