A federal appeals court questioned the Trump administration’s arguments for returning Central American migrants to Mexico while their asylum requests are adjudicated.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, heard arguments Wednesday on the administration’s request to put a hold on a federal judge’s ruling earlier this month that blocked the policy, known officially as the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, but dubbed “remain in Mexico.”

Justice Department lawyer Scott Stewart told the Ninth Circuit panel that the ruling incorrectly blocked “an important executive-branch initiative to address a significant immigration crisis facing the United States.”

Top Trump administration officials including Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, now named as a respondent in the case, have said the nation’s border-security infrastructure has reached a breaking point through the surge of families from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador seeking asylum as they flee poverty and violence.

U.S. authorities say that working with the Mexican government to allow families to live and work in Mexico while their claims are adjudicated is among the only ways to stem the influx while fulfilling legal and humanitarian obligations.