Nashville, Tennessee - A federal judge in Tennessee on Sunday denied the Trump administration's motion to keep Kilmar Abrego Garcia in detention ahead of his trial.

US Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes has scheduled a hearing Wednesday to discuss the terms of Abrego Garcia's release, though ICE is then expected to take him into custody and to try to deport him before his trial.

The Trump administration in March illegally deported Abrego Garcia to a notorious El Salvador prison in what it has called an "administrative error."

The Maryland husband and father was returned to the US earlier this month and immediately arrested on charges of trafficking undocumented migrants into the country, with the government alleging he was part of the Salvadoran gang MS-13.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Marjorie Taylor Greene explodes after Trump's attack on Iran: "Enough is enough"

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. RFK Jr. joins Trump's crusade against windmills with rant about whales

Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which his attorneys have characterized as an attempt by the Trump administration to justify the mistaken deportation.

"The government alleges that Abrego is a long-time, well-known member of MS-13, which the Court would expect to be reflected in a criminal history, perhaps even of the kind of violent crimes and other criminal activity the government describes as typically associated with MS-13gang membership. But Abrego has no reported criminal history of any kind," Holmes wrote.

"The Court does not find that these circumstances, when considered together, compel a determination that Abrego poses a risk of danger to the community or has the proclivity and incentive to flee rather than face prosecution of this case."

Abrego Garcia – who is married to a US citizen – entered the country without documentation around 2011.

Finding Abrego Garcia faced a credible threat from gangs in El Salvador, an immigration judge in 2019 barred the government from deporting him there. The order also gave him authorization to live and work in the US.

In order to deport Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration would be required to show that a third country would not simply deport him back to El Salvador, one of his legal representatives told the Associated Press.

The Trump administration has filed a motion to appeal and asked Holmes to stay her expected release order.