Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national at the center of a monthslong deportation legal fight with the Trump administration, could be released from federal custody as early as this week.

Attorneys for Abrego Garcia, who has since been returned to the United States after his initial deportation to El Salvador in March, asked a federal judge in Tennessee on Tuesday to issue an order releasing him from custody once a separate order delaying his release expires Friday. The prospect of Abrego Garcia’s release from the custody of U.S. Marshals sets up a pivotal decision for the administration: whether to push forward with his human smuggling prosecution in Tennessee or turn him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin deportation proceedings for a second time.