The Salvadoran man at the center of a high-profile deportation and human smuggling case under the Trump administration, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is asking a federal judge in Maryland to intervene and block Immigration and Customs Enforcement from removing him from the United States while his criminal trial proceeds.

In an eight-page emergency motion filed Thursday, attorneys for Abrego Garcia urged U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis to order his return to Maryland from Tennessee, where he has been jailed, and to prohibit ICE from transferring or deporting him once he is released from criminal custody.