Kilmar Abrego García declared himself innocent on Friday of Human smuggling charges, a week after they brought him back to the United States for detention in El Salvador.

The 29 -year -old appeared in his statement of positions in Tennessee, where federal prosecutors accused him of transporting undocumented migrants within the United States in what they say it was a conspiracy that involves the domestic transport of thousands of non -citizens of Mexico and Central America, including some children, in exchange for thousands of dollars.

After his statement, the judge began to hear arguments about whether to conduct a preventive detention hearing to determine if Abrego García should continue in custody pending trial. That audience, if approved, would happen below.

The first government witness in presenting his arrest case was the special national security agent, Pete Joseph, who testified on his investigation into the 2022 traffic stop, where Abrego García was stopped for speeding in a vehicle with eight passengers, and told the police that they had been working on the construction in Missouri.

As ABC News previously reported, the criminal investigation that led to the charges was launched in April when federal authorities began to analyze the stop.

Abrego García has been the subject of a prolonged legal battle since he was deported in March to the mega prison of El Salvador, despite a 2019 court order that except for his deportation to that country due to the fear of persecution, after the Trump administration said he was a member of the MS-13 criminal gang, that his family and lawyers denied.

The Trump administration, after arguing for almost two months that he could not be back, returned the United States last week to face an accusation of two positions claiming that, while living with his wife and children in Maryland, he participated in a conspiracy of years to transport undocumented migrants of Texas inside the country.

In a judicial presentation on Monday, prosecutors acknowledged that Abrego García would surely be arrested immediately by ICE if the judge magistrate of the United States, Barbara Holmes, would deny his motion of detention prior to trial, but asked the court to consider it, for the good of argument, the possibility that he “had a huge reason to flee” if it were not immediately arrested for ICE.

They also argued that the alleged MS-13 links of Abrego-García put him at risk of trying to obstruct justice or intimidate the possible witnesses against him, including his alleged conspirators.

“The United States would affirm that at least one co-conspirator has described that the defendant has previously used his membership in MS-13 not only to facilitate his illegal activity in the conspiracy of smuggling, but also to intimidate others in the conspiracy that he tried to face him about the treatment of female victims and their consumption of firearms and the drug addiction of the conspiracy, the risk of conspiracy and the risk of conspiracy, detection and was not the risk that the consumption of conspiracy and the risk of conspiracy and the risk of conspiracy was not added and the risk of conspiracy is not added and the risk of the conspiracy, and the consumption of which a conspiracy consumption was added.

In response, Abrego García’s lawyers said in a presentation on Wednesday that the Trump administration arguments for a detention hearing have no merit.

“Nor should it surprise us that the Government has not cited a single case that maintains that a generic position of smuggling foreigners provides reasons for a detention hearing,” Abrego García’s lawyers said. “This case should not be the first.”

Abrego García’s lawyers also argued in the presentation that their client is not a risk of escape, and said that the government “points out zero facts” that suggests that Abrego García has a history of evading the arrest, has previous restrictions, or has “systematically participated in international trips in the recent past.”

The lawyers also argued that there is no “serious risk” that Abrego García obstructs justice, arguing that the “accusations of affiliation of gangs without foundation” of the government do not support a finding that it raises a “serious risk” of obstructive behavior.

“[The] The Government has no right to seek detention in this case, Mr. Abrego García respectfully asks the court to deny the government detention motion, “said lawyers.