Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia have asked a federal judge in his civil deportation and habeas corpus case to have him returned to Maryland as soon as he is out on bond in his Tennessee criminal case.

And they want the court to keep the government”s hands off him entirely to ensure that he makes his way back home.

In an eight-page emergency motion filed Thursday morning, Abrego Garcia’s legal team pushed for U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, a Barack Obama appointee, to bar Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from taking their client back into custody.

“When his custody in the Tennessee criminal case ends, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia should return here, to the District of Maryland, where his civil litigation began and remains,” the motion begins.

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The request from the Maryland father’s side comes amid a conflict within the Trump administration itself – in which federal agencies appear to be at loggerheads over what to do with Abrego Garcia now that he has been returned to the United States.

In the Volunteer State, Abrego Garcia was indicted on two counts related to an alleged human smuggling conspiracy. The charges are related to a traffic stop during which he was allegedly caught driving nine “Hispanic males” who lacked “identification” in his Chevrolet Suburban, according to the 10-page indictment filed in late May.

Both judges working on that criminal case – which Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have characterized as “pure farce” – recently rejected the government’s overtures about the necessity of pretrial detention.

But the government, for its part, has made two separate arguments about why Abrego Garcia should remain in the custody of the federal prison system – which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Justice.

First, the government claimed the man who became the national face of opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown was a flight risk or a danger to the community. Then, after that argument failed, DOJ attorneys said they needed to keep Abrego Garcia under their supervision because ICE agents were waiting in the wings – with designs to immediately deport him to El Salvador.

Now, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have seized the opportunity created by the apparent discord within the federal government to propose a third option: a court order requiring him to be sent him back to Maryland and barring ICE from taking him into custody.

“The Government has stated that once Abrego Garcia is released from criminal custody, it will take him into immigration custody and again try to remove him to El Salvador, where it illegally removed him over three months ago,” the latest motion reads. “Plaintiffs therefore move under the All Writs Act and the Court’s inherent equitable authority for an order directing the Government to (1) return Abrego Garcia to the District of Maryland immediately upon his release from confinement in the criminal proceedings ongoing in the Middle District of Tennessee, and (2) refrain from removing Abrego Garcia from the continental United States or transferring him outside this District (other than to travel to Tennessee to participate in the criminal proceedings) absent further order of this Court.”

To hear the man’s lawyers tell it, he faces dire straits as soon as Friday.

“If this Court does not act swiftly, then the Government is likely to whisk Abrego Garcia away to some place far from Maryland,” the motion goes on.

While the latest filing aims to put the metaphorical ball in Xinis’ literal court, the Tennessee district court has suggested the government could easily solve the issue.

Last week, the magistrate judge issued a scathing order that took issue with many of the government’s claims about the facts in the case.

On Wednesday, the district judge – who is assisted by the magistrate – said the notion of ICE and DOJ competing for detention beggars belief.

“Underlying this case is an obvious truism that must not be forgotten: the Executive Branch is in control of where Defendant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia awaits trial in this case,” U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw wrote in a 16-page memorandum opinion. “This is true because the Executive Branch can elect whether to hold him for pending deportation proceedings or not. This seems overlooked.”