US sending military police to border entries in Texas, Calif.

PHOENIX — The U.S. government says it is sending 160 military police and engineers to two official border crossings to deal with asylum-seekers in case a federal appeals court strikes down one of the Trump administration’s key policies.

Senior Customs and Border Protection officials said Friday that active duty personnel will be in place by Saturday at ports of entry in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego. They’ll also send aviation support.

The deployment is in response to a crowd of asylum-seekers that gathered at an El Paso crossing on Feb. 28 after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily struck down the program known as “Remain in Mexico,” which forces asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico while their cases wind through court in the U.S. Officials shut down that border crossing for several hours that evening.

On Wednesday, the court again made a decision on the case, this time blocking the program in Arizona and California, the two border states under its authority. About 60,000 asylum-seekers have have been returned to Mexico while awaiting their immigration hearings in the U.S.

It’s unclear why the government is sending military police to El Paso, which isn’t subject to the current injunction blocking the program. When asked about that, a senior official said military members can be moved to different ports of entry in response to shifting needs.

Critics call the program inhumane for forcing vulnerable people to wait in high-crime Mexican border cities where they are often subjected to violence, extortion and kidnapping.